Opinion/Stead: The desire for the perfect lawn is hurting Cape's water, wildlife
First, they came for the stars.
Back in the early 1990s, a movement began to combat light pollution. Our relative distance from over-lit urban centers allowed us a genuine view of the ancient and changeable night sky. Science-minded volunteers like the late Werner Schmitt helped to build a professional-level observatory in Yarmouth. The work the small observatory on the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School campus did helping to measure near-Earth asteroids earned it the observatory designation code 106 from the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Dennis-Yarmouth students have been able to observe and report solar flares and sun spots.
But some moving here thought the roads too dark. There was agitation for more street lights, and more brightly lit areas. Local scientists and astronomers tried to persuade the new residents of the value of the night sky.
The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History would hold classes and lectures suggesting how home lighting could be compatible with the natural darkness. Shades atop outdoor lights in a garage or backyard could focus the light downward, to illuminate the ground put not pollute the sky with ambient illumination. Parking lot lights could be set up similarly.
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Businesses were encouraged to minimize nighttime store lights when they were closed, especially outdoor signs. Traffic lights could be similarly directed. Early in my career as a town volunteer, I served on the Streetlight Committee. Coming from Worcester, I thought the job was to put up more lights to make driving at night easier. I was surprised that the committee formed by then-Chief Santomauro was actually looking for areas where street lights could be safely taken down, to avoid too much light at night for the animals. Some of the remaining lights could go off for periods of time allowing the illumination to be picked up by another light in the general area so as not to make things too bright.
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And because this was Dennis, the idea that the town electric bills might be a skosh lower while also helping the environment overall was a win-win of sorts.
But now, klieg lights are installed on porches to blaze across neighborhoods to warn off any burglar who might want to make off with a lawnmower from the garage even though bothering to pull down the door and perhaps even lock it could serve the same purpose. The idea of preserving the natural darkness and the cycle and rhythm of day and night is becoming freakish.
Now they've come for the trees.
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There is suddenly a spate of deforestation in our neighborhoods. In my own, as houses sell for freakishly high prices, the new owners are cutting down 40-foot-tall oaks and pines in their side yards in order to have … grass? Ubiquitous lawn sprinkling systems? Automatic pesticide spraying to prevent any flaw in the plastic-looking lawns they seek to install?
Once you go to all that trouble, it must be difficult to see crumbling brown leaves spoiling the velvety effect. But the birds, squirrels, and others who live in the treetops are made homeless when trees come down. The same with bushes and shrubs that used to line a lot being replaced with a stockade fence to ensure absolute privacy for the occupants while making it harder for the more traditional residents to roam from yard to yard in search of food and nesting places.
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Of course, as one neighbor observed, with the shade trees gone and traditional sun beating down, the side yard they are exposing may well be hotter than the eventual destination that the chipmunks and bunnies might like to see them consigned to.
It is hard to understand to some extent. If you want sidewalks and square granite curbs, why do you not choose to live in Chelsea? If you want flat green lawns so doped up on chemicals they look like artificial turf, you might feel more at home in Millbury.
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The ecological issues of trying to use poisonous chemicals to make artificial turf viable as it seeps into the water supply you will be drinking next week don’t seem to resonate. If you suggested spraying poisons around the Quabbin reservoir, they would be horrified but doing the same thing in their own yard doesn’t resonate. And there is no such thing as a flushable wipe when you have a septic system as they may learn in a couple of years when they have theirs pumped.
It is perfectly legal to cut down trees in your yard in the Old King’s Highway district and you don’t need a permit to do so. Whether it is a necessary thing is a different issue, especially if you decide to replace it with a personal outdoor lighting system to help contribute to the light pollution as well. Whether it is a good idea is an even longer-term question.
Cynthia Stead is a columnist for the Cape Cod Times and can be contacted at cestead@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod: Tree clear-cutting, bright lights dim Cape's rural character
