MY GLADE IS GONE!

Cedar Glades are one of the fastest disappearing ecosystems found in the Ozarks. They are wonderful places. The soil is poor, the glades are either open or over crowded with scrub cedars, there are rocks on top of hardpan rock. But despite this, these glades have a wonderful diversity of plant and animal life. I have been oh so lucky. I have one within one mile of our house. In the center of this glade is an old stone quarry, a quarry from which the rock to build the First Baptist Church in town was taken from over 100 years ago.

Over the past twenty or so years I have visited this place often. It is just off the road I take my daily runs on. I go at least six miles, and the location of this glad is just perfect to stop at, take a rest, gather my thoughts and get my wind back before returning home. My dog Brodie is usually with me now. She replaced Odie who replaced Samson who replaced GusGus. We go off the road, follow a two tire track that winds through the glade and find a ledge to set on and just watch and listen. The two lane tire tracks are fit to drive on as long as you have a high bottom truck. The kids in the area have used this glade for years as a parking spot. To follow the tracks you must wind your way through used condoms and tissue paper. This has always been a comfort to me because I at least know they are using safe sex. There is very little other trash here, and I can live with the few beer cans that pop up now and then. I suspect that half the residents in our county over the age of 40 were probably conceived in this glade, and there is something about that which is also comforting.

The glade and it’s ridge are full of scorpions, ants, ticks, spiders and a hundred other little critters. The lizard watching is excellent there (lizard watching is a very under rated pass time) and I have been able to identify five different species in just one setting during one day in June. There is a large buck deer who lives there and has for years. He is the same one who hides in one of our old sheep pens during hunting season. There is a wonderful flock of wild turkey that make the cedars their home. And oh my, the birds. In a two day period I was able to make 26 identifications. Ground squirrels, mice, various sun loving snakes, and the list goes on…all make their home here.

Not no more folks! A developer from Chicago went and bought up the place. First came the big stone gates at the head of the ruts. “Elk Ridge” they call it. We have not had a free ranging elk in this part of the Ozarks since well before the Civil War, but I guess the name is appealing. The dirt ruts are now blacktop and there are no more condoms. Last week the first house started going up. It is being built just above the small spring which runs through the foot of the glade.

Now this land is absolutely worthless for home sites. There is absolutely NO top soil. There are no trees other than the cedars (which are as I write this being dozed down), The place is on the top of a flat ridge and is subject to very frequent lighting hits and to top it all off, they cannot even get cable TV out here.

The new owners, who I understand are coming in from the Detroit area will hall in thousands of pounds of top soil in an attempt to “make a yard” which will mean that the fertilizer and chemicals they use will drain directly into the spring.

All is lost.

Where will the deer go? Where will the Turkey and warbles go? Where will the Scorpions go? Where will the kids go to make love on hot August nights? Where will Brodie and I go? I know people have to live some where, but why did they have to pick my little glade?