This website has been providing its visitors with a taste of
wildlife and nature in the White River watershed area for fifteen
years. When I created the site, my goal was to help increase the
awareness of our place in the world to contrast it to more urban
environments and by doing, exemplify what can be lost if we aren’t
cautious.
What we have is what urbanized areas lack: The chance to put a
bobber in the water, learn to hunt, sail, rent a kayak, photograph
wildlife, fish off of the pier,
go on a bike ride away from traffic or simply wriggle our
toes into the beautiful Lake Michigan sand. It's endless.
We don’t need the things other less fortunate communities have
created in order to compensate for not having access to our unique rural
nature. The addition of more concrete, turf grass, and parking would
serve only to diminish our uniqueness.
I suggest, instead of striving for quantity, we embrace our rural
nature and focus on opportunities for residents and visitors to
access and unobtrusively experience the qualities we already
possess. We watershed residents need to be very careful when we make
changes or additions to our communities and our property. Is it
consistent with conserving or enhancing the health of our water
resources? Is what we plan in harmony with our surroundings or is it
just the result of old habits and urban envy?
Without a clear understanding of what we are, we run the risk of
becoming something less.