While my wife and I were sad, we just shrugged and took a wait and see attitude about it. Then, much like with the maple, he took a giant backhoe and pushed the entire mess into a smoky fire he had started with gasoline. Shortly our yard filled with smoke and my eyes were burning fiercely. I have bad allergies, which in hindsight should have been enough for me to know I should not live too close to neighbors in the country, but I guess I was a bit naive about people's inherent respect for each other.
When I was unable to handle the smoke any more we decided to pack up the dog and go to the park. After all, it was a a beautiful, sunny, 68F day and there would be no smoke at the park.
We started going to Crosswinds Marsh about nine years ago. The Detroit Metro airport had drained some wetlands to build their new runways and to compensate they had agreed to put a new wetland somewhere else. The area near Crosswinds Marsh had once been a marsh, later a farm, and was in danger from the fast approaching landfill (mostly Canadian trash) that was moving from east to west at an alarming rate. Smart local politicians managed to get the airport to agree to use this land as a wetland and a buffer from the trash. The park was created with a beautiful boardwalk, a number of trails, including a horse trail, free canoe rental and best of all the park was free. The picture I included is the picnic station in the center of the boardwalk out in the marsh. What made this park so interesting to us, other than the free price of admission was that the park did not allow fishing on the boardwalk, but did have a clearly marked area for fishing away from hikers and nature observers. The park did not allow bikes which is great because so many bicycle enthusiasts have ruined other parks with a reckless lack of concern for pedestrian traffic. There were few people but many wetland birds including herons, bald eagles, seagulls, swans and geese.
So today we headed to the marsh for a walk to forget about the neighbor, his seeming lack of love for nature and of course the smoke. The park was really crowded. Honestly that doesn't bother us much because most people seldom go more than a quarter of a mile down the trails or boardwalks and it soon becomes peaceful. Once we got away from the people the park was lovely as usual. What I was appalled about is what the people have done to my favorite park.
Whatever money agreement there was between the Wayne county park system and the airport seems to be over because there are is very little park ranger presence anymore. Therein lies the problem. There used to be three outdoor port a pot toilets. Someone burned them to the ground. They have been replaced by a single, uncleaned outdoor toilet. The boardwalk area that is a no fishing area, is so choked with people fishing that it is nearly impossible to walk past them some days. They have seats, fishing buckets, tackle boxes and of course cigarette butts, bottles and garbage that inevitably wind up in the marsh. Today I even saw two guys with bows and arrows. Really? You are going to spear hunt fish with children and pets running around? It's a little marsh, the fish aren't even big enough for a meal!!
The beautiful center piece in the boardwalk (in my picture) has been vandalized. Mosquito screen has been popped out. It is a nesting ground for barn swallows, but last Fall someone knocked all the nests out of the rafters. All the no fishing signs have been ripped out. Some of the boardwalk is rotting away or has been damaged by visitors. I see people let their kids or pets chase the geese instead of teaching a respect for wild things. People pick the wild flowers and leave garbage in its place. This Spring my wife and I pulled a metal garbage can out of the drainage ditch. Someone had rolled it down the hill and into the water.
So we don't have an authority telling us to be respectful. As a society, have we become so base in our mannerism that we can't show respect for public spaces and wild places without an authority threatening our arrest for non-compliance?
At first my wife and I verbalized our complaints with the offenders. We got tired of wasting breath and a little concerned that someone might escalate our protests into a physical confrontation, so we stopped complaining to them. I do not love my fellow man tonight and for that lack of optimism, I apologize.