The April 14 Sussex County Council meeting included the land-use working group’s recommendations regarding open space, clear-cutting forests and mitigation for building subdivisions. The intensive efforts by the working group to address Sussex County citizens’ concerns about overdevelopment and infrastructure are significant and should be applauded. Addressing ambiguous ordinance verbiage has already been addressed. But addressing the destruction of healthy forests, so crucial to Sussex County citizens’ health, safety and welfare, is paramount. The vanishing trees, wetlands and wildlife are permanent. Mitigation recommendations are a giant step in the right direction, but what is lost can never be replaced.
Kyle Hoyd, the Delaware state forester, provided vital expert information to the council representatives by delivering scientific explanations. Hoyd, responding to a council representative’s remark, explained when a 100-year-old oak tree is destroyed and a new oak tree is planted, the new oak tree will not survive 100 years due to climate change. Healthy forests with strong root systems and hardworking species are not something we think much about in our daily lives, but when they are taken away, boy, it is a slow-moving adjustment in our lives. They have a purpose. When bats that once enjoyed a feast of mosquitos on summer nights are replaced with fueled trucks spraying pesticides, that impacts our lives – not only our health, but also our pocketbooks. Scores have vanished. Many home yards provide food for birds and other animals when the forest once provided them with a bounty.
Some of the council members’ questions and remarks to presenters Todd Lawson, Vince Robertson and Kyle Hoyd appeared, to me, as short-sighted. They appeared to be based from a visual perspective and impact on the subdivision’s limitations. I don’t disagree that it is important to get clear answers, but the reason for the recommendations in the first place was heavily based on saving as much as possible of what we already have and its function to our county. And any mitigation must be substantive. Any shortcuts must be met with consequences that don’t impact the prospective home buyers.
I implore the Sussex County representatives to capitalize on Kyle Hoyd’s expertise when making decisions on these important ordinances. He has the experience, knowledge and foresight to provide the impacts of your decisions.
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