Future Maps

I have a language-buddy in Japan and while skyping we checked out my neighborhood at the 10,000 foot level on Google maps. Did you know that the Rosemont Trail is there? How amazing is that. It isn't even finished yet and it's on the map just like the Great Wall of China!

It got me thinking about what it took to get it there. Obviously the hard work of many dedicated people who envisioned it. But also the many landowners who gave permission for it to cross over their property in the easement.

Sometimes it feels like we're in this deadlock between those who want to develop and those who don't. But there's at least a third group. The growing group of Hamlet residents that have contributed to the common good by dedicating their land to open or park space.  There's the Stevens family that transferred some of their property into Metro open space and another piece into LO park property and the Wankers whose former home is now the birthplace of zillions of Metro native plants.  Sorry, I don't know the name of the family whose property  buffering Wilson Creek is now Metro land. Or the gentleman who gave his magical property near the Tualatin River to the Audubon Society (who forthwith sold it to someone who clearcut it - tragic!) And I don't know a thing about the Cornell Nature Park on Rosemont - but it's on the map!

The Century Farms of Cook and Fiala are dedicated to keeping our open space vibrant with farming and historical trees and some community confidence that this land is here to stay as part of our heritage if at all possible.

All around us people are quietly tending to and loving their land, convinced the roses bloom this huge - only here. Or that the sunrise looks this incredible - only from here. Or maybe that this bend in the river creates water music unique in the universe - just here. They're percolating ideas in their minds about how future generations can enjoy this beauty as much as they're enjoying it now.

In ten or twenty years when you Google our neighborhood those people's names will be there too, followed by 'Meadow' or 'Nature Park' or 'Wetland' or something that will remind you of the cool gentle breeze of a Hamlet spring.