You may remember that we got a community garden plot of our own this year. The rub was that the person who had the plot before us had allowed a young tree to take root in it (you aren’t supposed to let trees grow in the garden), which made it unusable for growing vegetables. The tree kept the plot in shade all day long.
Dilemma: On the one hand, I wanted to help promote urban agriculture by keeping a garden plot. On the other, I don’t remotely like the idea of cutting trees down.
Well, I gave it some thought and I decided to fell the tree and, yes, I felt like crap doing it. Especially when some community members got upset. One of my fellow community gardeners answered: “This is a garden not a forest.”
But I still felt conflicted.
Did I do the right thing? Did I do the wrong thing? I don’t know. I am, of course, trying to do what’s right but sometimes what’s right seems wrong and what’s wrong seems right. When is the use of environmental resources justified and when is it not?
That’s the environmental conundrum.