Here in James City County, Virginia, we live “elbow to elbow” with wildlife of all sorts.
Situated between Tidewater and the Piedmont, a lot of our land remains undeveloped as forest, marsh, or swamp. Our older neighborhoods were built to blend in to the environment.
Only in recent years has our county government focused more on making money than on preserving the beautiful and rich environment we’ve inherited.
We watch the clear cutting for new shopping centers and housing tracts with great sadness.
Not five miles from here, a developer is cutting new roads through the forests, destroying creeks, ravines, hillsides, and habitat in order to create a new office and retail park near a new hospital complex.
Someone is making gazillions of dollars, but acres and acres of beautiful forest and wildlife habitat are destroyed each day as this project continues.
I can only imagine the back room negotiations which allowed this project to move forward.
James City County was known, at one time, as an area with an unusually high number of different species of birds.
Part of the path of annual migration up and down the East Coast of the United States, birds have been drawn to our area to rest and eat along the way.
Many, like these lovely eagles, make our community their home, too.
Just a few years ago, an out of town owner planned to develop this beautiful bit of land with several new homes squeezed in between College Creek and a major road.
The presence of eagle’s nests was one of the factors which helped stop the deal from progressing.
We are always glad to see the eagles. Their very presence is testament that the land and water are still clean enough to support them and their eaglets.
So long as they choose to live here, we know the environment will support us, too.
Photos by Woodland Gnome 2014
Forest Garden 