University of Maryland Plans to Bulldoze Woods
The University of Maryland plans on bulldozing 9 acres of woods near the Comcast Center, the university’s basketball stadium. This really hits home for me because I went to the University of Maryland. I used to park in a parking lot right next to the wooded area in which they plan to demolish. The University says that it needs the area to relocate support facilities because of rapid development on campus.
This news comes right as the university is considered one of the top tree-friendly campuses in America. The campus just received the “tree campus” designation from the Arbor Day Foundation along with the college’s arboretum designation by the American Public Gardens Association. This really angers me because this is just a two-faced move by the university. What’s even worse is what Anne G. Wylie, vice president for administrative affairs had to say:
“This is a very complicated problem,” she said, adding that she sees no conflict between bulldozing woods and the university’s campaign to be rated one of the nation’s greenest schools. The overall aim is to develop a more compact, walkable campus and reduce the amount of driving by students, faculty and staff, she explained. “It’s not just about preserving trees.”
Bulldozing woods is not the reason you were named one of the greenest schools throughout the nation? That is so hypocritical that isn’t not even funny. Knowing the campus well, I cxan tell you that this will not help make the campus more carbon neutral at all. No matter what you do with this area of campus, it will not help reduce the amount of driving required on campus.
What’s even worse about this problem is that the fact that the eco-system in this small area of campus is unique for the area. It has a variety of soils and species and would be ashame to seem that all destroyed.
It’s obvious this move by the university is all about money. They would like to develop the campus further by building more campus apartments and shopping. The only way to do that is move the support facilities that are on the main part of campus to these woods that in which no students live or class buildings are located.
Comments
Yeah.. it doesn’t make sense that simply removing a tree with make people walk more in the area, and use their car’s less. I think you were dead on with your analysis, ultimately in the end its all about the money for the University.
Till then,
Jean
Of course it is about the money for the University, no one would doubt that. But I think there is a silver lining to this. Yeah, it’s unfortunate that they are bulldozing 9 acres of woods. I used to run and bike along the paths through there, and it was pretty nice. But I think they could be smarter about space utilization on campus. With the Comcast Center and all the development along that area, campus is really becoming huge, so big that it’s hard to walk across. I am at the University of Oregon for grad school, and it’s funny to me that people think that walking across campus here (15 minutes or so) is rough. Anyway, I wouldn’t be so hard on them for this. Ask to see their plans for future development. Then we can make a stink if it’s just more of the same sprawling atmosphere.
Kevin: Very fair point. It is a tough walk across campus. I used to sometimes have a 30 minute walk and a 15 minute walk from one class to another when I only had 10 minutes ( bad planning on my part ). I think it would be good for the community and environmental experts to sit down and have a discussion on this topic before making any decisions. I just worry that because they have been in constant construction for many years and seem to want to keep developing the campus up.