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There they were, 10 -12 huge trucks and heavy equipment, with massive bright lights illuminating the destruction.
We were hoping TV news crews would film the appalling clearcutting around 11pm last night, June 19, in Newtown on I-84 west bound.
The brutal demolition of hundreds of perfectly healthy trees and habitat far beyond the edge of the roadway was sickening to see, counterproductive, unnecessary, and even amoral. Hundreds of mature, healthy, CO2-consuming, cooling, erosion-preventing trees bludgeoned into non-existence. For what?
Of course, that's exactly why the destruction is scheduled at that hour -- while most of us aren’t looking. But the public deserves to see its government in action.
Between the pointless, destructive clearcutting and mowing down miles of much-needed pollinator habitat, Connecticut's Department of Transportation couldn't be more anti-environment.
It's time for that to change, and fast.
ConnDOT and Governor Lamont need to hear from the public that we demand our state government agencies get their act together and lead on climate change and sustainability, not make it worse. Right now, they're the problem, not the solution. They can flip that script with good management and communication practices that don't cost a dime and would save taxpayer dollars.
So, in your own words, send an email saying that DOT's anti-environmental clearcutting and destructive mowing practices must stop now to:
The brutal demolition of hundreds of perfectly healthy trees and habitat far beyond the edge of the roadway was sickening to see, counterproductive, unnecessary, and even amoral. Hundreds of mature, healthy, CO2-consuming, cooling, erosion-preventing trees bludgeoned into non-existence. For what?
Of course, that's exactly why the destruction is scheduled at that hour -- while most of us aren’t looking. But the public deserves to see its government in action.
Between the pointless, destructive clearcutting and mowing down miles of much-needed pollinator habitat, Connecticut's Department of Transportation couldn't be more anti-environment.
It's time for that to change, and fast.
ConnDOT and Governor Lamont need to hear from the public that we demand our state government agencies get their act together and lead on climate change and sustainability, not make it worse. Right now, they're the problem, not the solution. They can flip that script with good management and communication practices that don't cost a dime and would save taxpayer dollars.
So, in your own words, send an email saying that DOT's anti-environmental clearcutting and destructive mowing practices must stop now to:
- ConnDOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto at garrett.eucalitto@ct.gov
- Bureau Chief of Highway Operations and Maintenance Paul T. Rizzo at paul.rizzo@ct.gov
- Bureau Chief of Policy and Planning Kimberly Lesay at kimberly.lesay@ct.gov
- DOT.CustomerCare@ct.gov, and ask for a reply.
- Then copy and paste your message to Governor Lamont here and ask for him to reply.
Enacting pro-environment legislation that may or may not get implemented or enforced is one thing. Our state government agencies' actual environmentally destructive actions are another.
When not enough of us speak up, they just keep doing what they're doing.
If Texas, not known as an environmental leader, can leave pollinator habitat along the highway, Connecticut can too. | But Connecticut pays mowers to destroy any possibility for pollinator habitat. |
Tell ConnDOT and Governor Lamont it's time to change ConnDOT's anti-environmental ways, now. It's national pollinator week, after all.
Related: Ken Dixon's CT Insider story, CT DOT faces criticism following overnight tree-cutting: 'Who'd you notify before you went and cut it?', from March 1, 2023.