A little more than a month ago my family moved out of our single family home to a close by new apartment complex, so that we could get our house renovated. It feels like a completely different lifestyle, though we are literally just a mile away from where we used to live. But the biggest shock for me is realizing how much of nature I have lost. It’s a shock not just because the move was so local, but also because I hadn’t realized how much nature I actually had access to in our suburban neighborhood in the Bay Area.
Though this new high density development looks picture perfect with lush vegetation all along the well kempt streets, to me it feels sterile. Where are the birds? Where are the squirrels? Where are the bugs?!
Just a mile away, in our backyard, I would regularly see robins, mourning doves, crows, humming birds, jays, kites (or eagles or hawks – I can never tell), the occasional vulture, and hear the mockingbird go on and on from the top of the redwood tree. The majestic Great Horned Owl, the apex predator of our neighborhood, would make himself visible regularly, just to remind everyone who’s boss. I’d fight the perennial fight against the weeds, as I observe the fight for survival every creature in the wild has to engage in.
I’d see many varieties of beetle, bees, spiders, ants, slugs, and roaches, mice, rats and sometimes butterflies. I don’t miss the roaches, mice or rats, but I, and my labradoodle, miss the squirrels, though we hate them with the fullness of our hearts! At night, I’d sight the occasional cayote, deer, raccoon (even an albino raccoon!), and smell the stink of the skunk.
None of that here, just a mile away.
This area, with its luxury apartments and chic condos, is full of young people, mostly new immigrants. There are a lot of young children and pets. It’s lively. It’s energetic. It’s modern. But I wonder if these people realize what they are missing.
Yes, they have gyms, pools, game rooms, bike kitchens, and no, they don’t have to deal with roaches or rats. That’s all nice. But accidently coming face to face with a hovering humming bird buzzing like some mechanical gadget is quite a feeling too, as is watching crows and eagles battle it out in the airspace above your head, or stepping on a garter snake in your yard.
But I suspect the wild will win in time, and gradually encroach this area too and eventually take over. And I am sure there will be some people that’ll appreciate that. But will the young kids growing up in this unnatural environment ever come to embrace that?
Lucky for me, I am here for just a few more months, and after that I get to return to the beautiful mess of my old neighborhood. I’ll still hate the squirrels for eating all my fruit, but I’ll appreciate them all the same.