The earth's forests provide for the ecological, spiritual, and physical needs of human beings, freely offering sustainable food, clothing, and shelter, and even the very oxygen we breathe. Yet corporate and government interests look at public forests and see only the potential for profit, an attitude which results in the privatization, sale, and annihilation of some of our most essential resources. According to American Lands, countries heavily indebted to the IMF had a much greater rate of forest loss than other countries in the period from 1990-1995. Here in Baltimore, the city's last remaining public forest could be sold for the benefit of private and city coffers.

Woodberry Woods, in northwest Baltimore along the Jones Falls, was once used as both a dump and a landfill, but today serves as a welcome oasis in a city with little public green space. The 100-plus acre forest is home to running streams and a wide variety of animal and plant life including original growth trees. The section that was once a landfill is just beginning to be reforested, thanks to citizen groups and individuals who plant trees and keep the woods free of trash.

Today, Woodberry Woods is again on the brink of destruction as competing plans are put forth that would clear acres of trees to make room for development. Though 25,000 inhabitable homes lay vacant in the city, the Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development has advanced a proposal to sell lots for housing construction to the highest bidder. Clearing forest for a park and ride has also been proposed. Most dangerously, a bill introduced in city council on September 10 would allow for the sale of 50 acres of city-owned land (and 21 acres owned by Sinai Hospital) for the construction of two 6,000 capacity stadiums for Loyola College, complete with parking garages and floodlights. The quasi-public Baltimore Development Corporation (the people who brought us "West Side Redevelopment") sent out the original request for land use that garnered all of the above proposals. Currently, BDC is working to advance Loyola's acquisition of the land.

On September 23, Jan Danforth of the Urban Forest Initiative, a coalition formed to protect Woodberry Woods, led a tour of the forest to show people exactly what will be destroyed by the proposed stadiums. Throughout, evidence of what the woods had already suffered was visible; old tires and appliances littered streambeds, a BGE natural gas tank lay abandoned, and a dirt road was plowed through the barren landfill. Remarkably, the forest has proved its staying power. With its resilient oaks and sycamores, shrubs with tiny teal and purple berries, and frogs and dragonflies, the woods seemed a sylvan refuge.

Loyola president Father Ridley and city council president Sheila Dixon were scheduled to take a look at the site the following day, when Ridley would attempt to show Dixon that the facilities would be built primarily upon deforested land. Presumably, their excursion would focus on the prior landfill area and not detour into the wooded section of the forest, though streambeds and wildlife there would also be affected by the introduction of traffic, light, and crowds to the woods. In addition, the regrowth that has occurred, both naturally and aided by humans, seems to prove that the land would be better suited for a forest than a stadium. Quaking aspens recently planted along the old landfill road are thriving, and the scent of Sweet Annie makes it easy to forget that garbage is decomposing below ground. Neighbors obviously take great care with the area; while hiking that Sunday Danforth came across newly planted mums, still with nursery tags, that she hadn't known had been planted.

Trekking through this area of the woods Danforth said, "I don't know why they think this would be a good site for a stadium. Part of the land is terraced and the rest is so hilly that it would take considerable work to flatten it." An immediate environmental concern also exists that if the landfill is opened up during construction hazardous chemicals might be released into the air and water, particularly important because the woods are a Chesapeake Bay watershed. The cost for the clean up of this, as well as any possible costs needed to stabilize the land before construction, would be the responsibility of the taxpayers of Baltimore, not Loyola. According to Woodberry's web site, Loyola says that they have tested the ground and have not found any potential hazards; however, they refuse to release their findings until the land has been safely purchased.

The Urban Forest Initiative firmly believes that allowing Loyola to proceed will cause irrevocable harm to the forest and to the community. The initiative has proposed establishing a land trust that, among benefits such as nature trails and a tree nursery, would create stewardship programs to provide educational and recreational resources for many city children--and adults-- whose experiences with nature have been limited due to lack of access. If kept intact, Woodberry could also serve as an ecological example of reforestation of damaged woodlands. Development would erase these opportunities.

Unfortunately, according to Danforth, the president of Loyola has refused to hear the Urban Forest Initiative's concerns three times. In addition, though the development plan was originally going to be made available to the group, Loyola eventually declined to share it, citing their "proprietary rights."

The Loyola development bill, Bill 01-0549, will be back before city council in the coming weeks, to be followed by a public hearing on the issue. Danforth believes that what may ultimately sway the council "is a head count, how many people show up to the meeting." In the meantime, she says, letters to the mayor might be the most influential tactic, since he is the one who introduced (through the council president) the development bill in the first place. For more information, visit aboutwoodberry.com.