A survey of Belmont's silver maple forest - one of the last surviving silver maple forests in Eastern Massachusetts - was recently completed.
Here is a list of some of the animals that live there. Read this list to your children: beaver, cottontail rabbit, eastern coyote, fisher, meadow vole, mink, muskrat, red fox, short-tailed shrew, striped skunk, weasel, white-footed mouse, white-tailed deer, woodchuck.
We know they are there because of a tuft of fur caught on a twig, a delicate track in the soft earth, or the ripples in the water caused by something swimming to its burrow under the riverbank.
And the survey cataloged more than 100 birds, too many to list here.
The survey recorded the birds as they went about their activities: singing and calling (many), feeding and roosting (bald eagle), walking on a mud bar (green-winged teal), hunting (black-crowned night heron), resting with nine ducklings (mallard), perched low, next to river (red-tailed hawk), tracks, walking (pheasant), territorial dispute (yellow warbler), swimming upriver (mute swan), resting on water, preening (common merganser), singing, pre-nesting (phoebe), display flights (woodcock).
Trees and shrubs, wildflowers and mushrooms, ferns and grasses, countless insects, spiders, butterflies, snails, fish and turtles, both painted and snapping - all of these, together with the other animals and birds, form the splendid, varied tapestry of Belmont's silver maple forest.
If the forest is allowed to be built upon, the ecosystem that now exists will be forever changed. Hundreds of beautiful, healthy trees will be chopped down. Wildlife habitat will be permanently altered and diminished.
Over time, most of the animals will leave the area. The forest and the animals that live there will all be gone.
This forest belongs to our children and our children's children. It is an unspoken pact that adults make with the young, that we guard the resources that someday will be theirs.
Some adults now in charge seem to believe that a large commercial development or 250 housing units and a parking garage, considerably isolated from easy access to Belmont's many advantages, is worth more than this flourishing ecosystem.
Worth more than this magnificent silver maple forest.
Worth more than trees, wildflowers, animals and birds that can never be replaced and will never return.
What do you think? And then ask your children what they think.
Carol, Mark and Matt Centrella
Baker Street
