It's called Meadowbrook, but the meadow is being bulldozed to make way for 42 houses the developers are promoting as "a preferred address," and the closest brook is about a mile away. In less than three months, about 35 acres of farm and forest land will have been leveled so that families able to purchase the $40,000 half-acre lots can spend another $150,000-$300,000 to hire private companies to build their dream houses which will surround another $50,000 or so of furnishings.

       Where once scarlet, red, white, and black oaks stood, there will be asphalt roads ending in cul-de-sacs. Where once there were sugar and red maples, there will be concrete foundations supporting overpriced shells of brick and wood. Where once there were a few black bear, hundreds of deer, thousands of birds, mice, and squirrels, and millions of insects and flowers, there will now be the sounds of only a few dozen children who will learn about botany and zoology in freshly-scrubbed whitewashed plaster classrooms in million dollar brick buildings.

       More than three centuries ago, the virgin forests were first cut back so that families from England could begin farms. From one generation to another, the farmland produced corn and beans and just about any kind of vegetable that would grow in the fertile land of northeastern Pennsylvania. But, the past few years have not been good to the farmers. Throughout the nation, farmers have had to abandon their crops, and marginal farmland has been growing back into forests or being sold to sub dividers who strip the land in order to plant malls and developments.

      On the land of the "preferred address" there will be more pollution, for the trees, brush, and wild flowers filter impurities of air and water before they enter the water table. On that same land, because of the lack of plant life, there will be a greater risk of soil erosion, sedimentation, and flooding, even though local requirements require developers to have an anti-soil erosion plan. Keeping many of the trees while building houses to conform to the land so that all life could live in harmony with each other might have been a good idea if the people with bad judgment didn't think that to build houses you had to first strip the land of its life. Perhaps, the developers believed that brick houses could filter rain and pollution, chainlink fences would stop erosion, and road signs could provide shade. And, perhaps they really didn't care that asphalt would be the grave marker for the nests and dens of wildlife.

       Thirty-five acres that are being converted from farm and forest land to housing may not be much. But, since the end of World War II, an estimated 70-100 million acres of farmland have been converted to commercial or residential use or to certain public works programs; in the past two decades alone, more than 20 million acres of forest land have been lost in America. In the nation, about 2.5 million acres of fertile farmland land a year are lost to sprawling developments, and there are 1.2 million fewer farmers than a decade ago. In Pennsylvania, during the past decade, there has been a loss of 9,000 farms and one million acres of farm land. Perhaps on the 35 acres of the land now called Meadowbrook, some families will hire gardeners to plant lawns and to carefully sculpt bushes; perhaps they will hire masons to build walkways, patios, and fountains to add to what they believe is a "natural" atmosphere; perhaps they will direct their hired help to buy saplings from a local nursery to plant in the backyards. And, perhaps, in a century or two, those saplings will grow to the size of the oaks and maples that once were destroyed so that houses could be built in a "preferred address."