By Elizabeth Sims
Staff Writer

Every Sunday when my family is driving home from church, we pass the same Chevron gas station. This particular gas station has a small field next to it that has not been touched for as long as I can remember.

Each time we drive by this field someone always blurts out, “I wonder how long it will be before they build another strip mall there” or something along those lines.

These comments used to drift to the back of my mind and were not given much thought. That is, until recently when I passed a plot of land where a grove of trees once stood. It was completely leveled with a huge sign planted in front of it reading David Weekly Homes. My mom proceeded to sarcastically declare, “Oh look, another housing development! We don’t have near enough of those!”

It was then that I became troubled by the inherent lack of natural spaces still left in Coppell. I began to notice that the only places that were left intentionally natural were the woods at Andy Brown East and the Coppell Nature Park, and even those were surrounded by roads and houses on all sides.

To me, it seems the community has become so blinded by visions of progress that natural spaces have been cast aside. The only places where we allow trees, grass and plants to grow are in our yards, roadway medians and parks, and those are trimmed and maintained constantly so they cannot go through their natural growth processes.

Not to say development and expansion are inherently bad. In fact, they can add to the appeal and overall value of a community, but the effect they have can be harmful to the environment.

If progress is to continue, I believe that the environmental effect of development should be taken into consideration before we bulldoze another grove of trees and build yet another housing complex or strip center on that land. If we still need to build on land, then perhaps a required amount of trees should be planted around the building, or we could even landscape medians on the road.

Natural areas can also add an incredible amount of value and charm to a community. Why else would people be drawn to live in the areas near Old Town Coppell where trees are still growing and creeks are still flowing?

We visit places like these country towns or go camping in secluded woods to “get away from the city for awhile” or “get some fresh air” or “reconnect with nature”. Would these small country towns be nearly as appealing if they did not have the rolling fields of tall grass or the glittering creeks running through them?

Would we still appreciate the woods if there was a McDonald’s built right in the middle of them? If these places did not have natural appeal, we would not want to visit them at all.

Why is it that we appreciate the natural spaces in these environments, but we level our own spaces back in our hometown? If we would just step back from our bulldozers and housing contracts and see how our own natural areas could be preserved, our community could have more charm.

More people could start visiting to see the beauty of the natural areas we have conserved rather than seeing a never-ending group of housing complexes and stores.

With some time and effort, trees could be planted on that little field by the Chevron station. The massive lots that are occupied by virtually unused strip centers could be turned into natural habitats or another nature park. The value and charm of our community could be increased by our preservation of natural spaces and not our continual progress and development.