Sarah Vogel, Oakland Mills student
My name is Sarah Vogel. I am an eighth grade student, and I will attend Oakland Mills High School next year. I have grown up my whole life in this neighborhood, and my family is always walking around this area. Most often, we walk around Lake Elkhorn, looking at birds and other wildlife. I like nature so much that this summer I went on an environmental leadership training camp on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We canoed on the Bay and mucked in marshes and got to see all kinds of herons and fish and other wild animals.
So you can imagine how excited I was to learn that there would be a new park in my part of Columbia. We drive past the woods and fields of the old Smith farm often, and I know it could have owls and foxes and other cool animals. I imagined hiking through thickly wooded paths and across open meadows with tall grass and maybe across a boardwalk over a wetland. It could be amazing!
But then I saw the plan for the park. It has so many parking lots, mowed ball fields, tennis courts, tot lot playgrounds and other development. Only thin rims of trees are left. There’s very little space for wild animals to live, and even less for people like me who want to explore nature. Space for wildlife is shrinking, and this park instead of saving a space for it is taking space away. Roads and parking lots will eat up what is now home for wildlife.
I like sports and go to see my brother play soccer. But there are a lot of soccer and ball fields. I used to love playing at tot lots, and tennis is fun too. But this farm could be a unique place in Columbia where we could really see what nature used to be like around an old farm and what nature could be like if we let it alone instead of building all over it. People of all ages need natural places to explore, look at wildlife, enjoy fresh air and spend time with friends without trying to win a game. On my Chesapeake Bay trip we only saw one area that was completely undisturbed by construction. Wherever we looked it was as if it had been for 400 years. I don’t want that spot to be the only natural spot left.