How can we save our environment and save our environment at the same time? We need the light rail in order to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and we need the trees so we can breathe. But can we sacrifice the trees for the light rail? Isn’t there a way to build a light rail AND keep our trees?
FROM THE LAKES AND PARKS ALLIANCE OF MINNEAPOLIS:
The Met Council is proposing to clear 44 acres of urban forest in order to build the Southwest LRT. The number of trees to be cut down—5,000 of them fully mature—would dwarf the number lost in the catastrophic summer solstice storm of 2013.
Light rail is often described as an environmentally preferred mode of transportation, but clear-cutting Minneapolis’ largest urban forest would significantly and permanently damage Minneapolis’ air quality. Each year a single acre of trees absorbs the amount of CO2 produced by driving a car 26,000 miles, according to the Arbor Environmental Alliance. The area designated for clear-cutting is also habitat for a wide variety of wildlife, including deer, turtles, geese and ducks, loons, egrets, herons, owls, and lately, eagles.
“The Met Council’s plan to destroy Minneapolis’ largest urban forest flies in the face of the urgent, worldwide movement to preserve trees,” said Lakes and Parks Alliance of Minneapolis board member George Puzak. “Clear-cutting of forests is known to contribute to global warming. We think the Met Council should choose a more environmentally friendly route for light rail.”
Twin City tree-lovers of all ages are invited to Speak for the Trees Day on Saturday, Nov. 6, from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Kenilworth Corridor, behind 2512 Upton Ave. S. Participants will dramatize the magnitude of the proposed clear-cutting by tying green ribbons around thousands of trees the Met Council would destroy to make way for the proposed Southwest LRT.
There will be music as well as cider and cookies donated by Barbette restaurant. Especially for children a celebrity reader has been invited to read “The Lorax,” Dr. Seuss’ beloved story about the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who speaks for the trees against the Once-ler, who wants to cut them down. The reading will be at 11 a.m.
Speak for the Trees Day is sponsored by the Lakes and Parks Alliance of Minneapolis, a grassroots organization opposed to routing light rail through the environmentally sensitive Chain of Lakes area.
