I am a lifelong Montgomery County citizen. When I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s Rock Creek Park was mowed regularly. It was easy to find nice spots for picnics and games could be played in many open areas such as at Beach Drive and Kensington Parkway (as just one example), but now thick woods have been allowed to take over what were open fields.
These thickets now provide excellent habitat for deer population which is an escalating source of traffic accidents and the spread of Lyme disease by way of deer ticks. When I was a kid, I never saw a deer where I lived in lower Montgomery County, yet nowadays in the same area, deer are a frequent sight and many people are startled by them darting across their path while biking, driving, jogging or walking.
I am inclined to suspect that Montgomery County by way of its less politically accountable creation the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) seeks to advantage deer population at the expense of people population. The evolution of this issue is complex. I was in a Montgomery County Public high school when the first Earth Day took place and now many new ideas are having diverse impacts on the cost of living for plain folk. I think the poet E. E. Cummings had it right – down they forgot as up they grew – to paraphrase his poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town.” Common sense and pursuit of all citizens general welfare has gotten confused by political sloganeering and theories that sound good like “forest preservation” but create undue costs and consequences upon people who wish and deserve to progress as best they can in coexistence with the facts of nature. We do not live in forests and as a closing observation about Rock Creek Park today, please note how many mature trees have fallen naturally and just left to rot where they fall, yet we try to make our way in a world of expensive lumber. Industrial arts anyone?
