Thursday, January 13, 2011
Citizen joins Hollon's concerns for trees and road work along RR 12
I am ready, even in this cold weather to tie myself to a tree! Want to join me?
Note: Wimberley area resident Roberta Shoemaker-Beal sent this letter in response to the Jack Hollon commentary below.
Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Ms. Shoemaker-Beal at creatas@aol.com or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
To the Editor:
I always appreciate Jack Hollon's sense of civic guardianship for the Wimberley Valley, a gateway to the Hill Country of Texas. For me he is a hero and a “grey head,” one who senses what is important, due to his study and history of a bio-region. The Wimberley Valley seems to be a complex eco-geologic system which too few understand.
It also increasingly concerns, actually shocks me, that our elected officials do not inform citizens, whom they know to be concerned about the Wimberley Valley, that such mass destruction is pending on our main scenic gateway road in to our unique bio-region.
Jack Hollon’s well documented and reflective writing needs to be posted on every tree so that those un-aesthetic and uncaring folks who aid and abet the destruction of the very values that draw people to the Hill Country, and especially the Wimberley Valley, in the first place. Ranch Road 12 used to quicken my heart coming home to Wimberley. In the last two weeks, it has wounded my heart, my aesthetic sense and my hope for the future of our beautiful little corner of the world.
How can anyone be so callous as to NOT inform caring citizens about this impending destruction of the gateway to the Hill Country? I have been chided for becoming a conspiracy theorist about politics locally? Yet, one wonders if someone is manipulating the construction schedules to take advantage of the transitions in government? I am beginning to think that the elected officials of Hays County are working against the very values that many of us hold dear: the beauty of our corner of the Hill County.
How can one "over-weight and over-width load of industrial equipment, being transported north by Starline Heavy Haul, Inc. of Alberta, Canada" get away with the destruction of a "signature tree?" Are there no protections in place against such blatant scenic and historic destruction? Why not?
Again, why have those wanting to protect the scenic value, and, even the property values of our valley, not been informed that further destruction was planned? I am sure the non-running creeks of this valley have already had a lowering effect from unchecked property development. There is a big difference between maintaining roads and up-grading them for construction trucks!
Why? Is it because concerned Hill Country folk are being discounted as "old" and" behind the times," and not acceptant of "you-can’t-stop-growth-ism." Growth at what cost to us all? Why? Is it because the folks in Wimberley can get very organized when informed and were very successful in a protest against taking down RR 12 oak trees before? Because of the True Ranch meeting that drew 200 people and lasted for many hours, demonstrating the concern we all have? Yes, a community meeting is long overdue.
Many "grey heads" from the Wimberley Valley tried to warn Patrick Rose of the cost of his "real estate background" to our region. He did not listen. Perhaps, that will be the future of other "young bucks" who do not really care about our Hill Country in the long term, and who plan to sell us all out, and move on.
May we replace them with elected officials who can do their job better than those in office now, while we try and limit the damage of their short-sightedness immediately? I am ready, even in this cold weather to tie myself to a tree! Want to join me? But, first, I will go to a Hays County Commissioners meeting next Tuesday morning, if they cannot come across the county to us? Thanks for your excellent article. It resonates with just about everyone I know around here.
Roberta Shoemaker-Beal
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22 comments:
I applaud Ms. Shoemaker-Beal's willingness to protest this destruction of irreplaceable trees in this chilly weather.
I have a better idea: Let's tie the County Commissioner and anyone else who thinks we need to "destroy the village in order to save it" to one of these trees to prevent the bulldozers from taking any more lives.
The public doesn't need to be INFORMED of these plans, they need to be part of the discussion where these kinds of brutal and unnecessary decisions are made. The people who love these tree-lined roadways need to be at the table when such ideas are raised so that they can inform these people that cutting down beautiful and beloved trees is not an option.
The County Commissioner now making nonsensical excuses for this rampant destruction needs to be put on a short leash and guided by wiser minds with warmer hearts.
It is up to us to speak for the trees, the land and the water as it seems their voices are not heard by our elected officials nor by the drivers of bulldozers.
Before you lynch anyone on the Hays County Commissioners Court, please remember that this tree was cut by TxDOT staff - because RR 12 is a STATE highway. The County doesn't really figure into this one.
Is it Robert or Roberta. I know Roberta Shoemaker Beal. But not Robert Shoemaker Beal. Is he a new liberal treehugger resident of Wimberley?
Treehugger makes a good point, although inadvertent.
The "dead voices" are the voices of past generations who are screaming in cosmic agony as they watch the American Dream run amok with the howls of free markets aborters and growth crazies.
The past generations are pained for their future generations, being threatened by current generations.
Mr. Hollon is reminding you about your past and future, and that the present is experiencing a form of mindset insanity.
Re: "Jack Hollon’s well documented and reflective writing needs to be posted on every tree...."
Isn't it hypocritical to print up a bunch of paper notices about saving trees that you would nail to these trees?
Re: "It is up to us to speak for the trees, the land and the water as it seems their voices are not heard by our elected officials nor by the drivers of bulldozers."
Nature cares not for human opinion. If you are hearing voices from trees, the land, and water then you are the one that needs help. Do you live in Wimberley by any chance?
Actually, it's the people who can't hear the "voices" of nature who are insane. The call it "the crazies who are running the asylum."
Thanks for confirming the diagnosis of Wimberley residency.
Open your heart and you, too, will achieve "Wimberley residency".
The voices are there to be heard.
Just listen.
"Nature cares not for human opinion."
I wasn't referring to human opinion. I was referring to our commonality with Nature and listening to her opinion.
We are all in the same boat.
Start rowing.
@Treehugger:
You hear voices from inanimate objects.
You want to "row the boat" without direction.
Feel free to begin rowing at any time, you've only got one oar in the water to begin with. You won't be going anywhere.
You really consider trees and other living things to be "inanimate"?
You are the one missing the boat.
I am curious, Treehugger, What did you eat for supper last night and what did that “living thing” say when you bit into it? Ouch?
Jack Hollon is nothing but an ethical, intelligent, caring, community loving, environmentally cosncious nice guy. Why would anyone want to tie themselves to a beautiful tree with him?
There goes the neighborhood!
I guess that’s about a hundred or more Oak Trees that won’t get the Oak Wilt. Maybe this is Gov. Perry’s fix for this dreaded disease. You got to hand it to him, this is how the early settlers stopped the Indians from starving. I feel better already.
I don't think anyone was considering tying Jack Hollon to a tree.
Just Bulldozer Conley and his merry band of land clearance specialists.
Treehugger, are you deaf as well as blind? Will Conley had nothing to do with the cutting of trees along RR12. He just gave a ridiculous explanation if you can believe the weak reporting from the View. The trees were cut by TxDot since 12 is a state highway. For Treehugger’s benefit, that means it is not a County Road dufus!
Sorry, but if there was ROW to be cleared for a bigger and bolder road to Wimberley from San Marcos, then you can be assured that Will Conley had something to do with it, if not directly, then with his vote or urging at CAPCOG or at CAMPO or some other acronym.
Just because that arrogant excuse for a public servant wasn't driving the bulldozer or signing the work order doesn't mean he didn't know they were going to be cutting way more trees down than anyone in Wimberley wanted or knew about.
You that naive?
If you are to believe Will Conley (and sadly our new County Judge appears to be buying this line of crapola), this was the work of some lone overambitious dozer operator who just overdid his assignment.
That is some stretch to believe that some guy could do all that damage without adult supervision.
If the County (or whoever is the aggreived party) would simply sue the dozer company, then the truth might come out.
Treehugger, your hate for Conley is hanging out, So why don’t you zip it up. I know that some of the local bozos in the Wimberley Valley like to beat up on our County Commissioner for just about anything that makes them uncomfortable. This hillbilly attitude about trees is one of the reasons that this little backwater has stayed so primitive and dirty. Look around at the more progressive towns and you will see cleaner and more open vistas. This applies to Dripping Springs to some level and certainly Kyle and Buda. San Marcos is beginning to show some improvement although the University will always be a deterrent to community improvement. Even so, compare the Wimberley Square to any of them. One time I heard it called a white trash version of Fredericksburg, seems reasonable to me.
To Last Anonymous,
Wimberley is not a poor copy of
Fredericksburg nor of any other
place. And I would much rather
live in Wimberley than in Dripping
Springs, Buda, Kyle, or any of the
other towns you name. Stretches
of big-box stores (which cause
the locally-owned restaurants and
stores to go belly-up) are not
my idea of a pleasing vista.
I hope you live in one of the
towns you praise instead of in
Wimberley.
TxDOT did not take down the trees on RR12. The county's contractor hired by Conley did. Call TxDOT yourself - I did. The state does not own right of way until the county deeds it over to them after the utilities have been moved and the road is being built. The 'improvements' being done on RR12 are being funded by the county -your property tax dollars.
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