Although Michael had already seen this, he and I walked over to the site of our wildcrafted onion today. The acre plot of land is bordered on one side by a Little League field, one side a park, one side a school and one side a busy road that faces a large apartment complex. It is a mess of small trees, brambles, weeds and, yes, wild onion. A week ago it was all torn to hell by bulldozers. We figure it’s for additional parking for the Little League field, although right now it incongruously has a sign around it’s fenced perimeter that says “no parking”.

The loss of this interurban woods is immense. Michael and I used this path for walking and wildcrafting. Others use it for jogging or swift passage to the apartment complex. It served the park as a filter and screen from the busy road. I wish I had “before” pictures, but I didn’t know there would be an after.

This pile of small to midgrowth trees is the approximate site of our wild onion. Look at the clear cut destruction around it.

Michael walking off forlornly into the dust.

A giant earthmover has created a trench and the resulting dirt pile out of my piece of Paradise.

Here’s a picture of Michael next to a tree’s giant root system. (I tried to rotate the picture but I am tech-stupid.)

So, Michael is 5 foot 8 inches tall. Do you get the scale of this tree?

I am so sick over this. Not only the loss of my wild onion, but over the loss of a small wild area that people can walk, jog, and walk their dogs through. This also helped filter noise and pollution. And for what gain? Twenty parking spaces? When this planet goes to shit – I’m going to roast and eat the people that paved Paradise.