|
|
So my friend to me is like a great egret. In high school, in college, well...whenever I lived with my parents in the Los Angeles area of Playa Del Rey, I drove through the wetlands. Oh, you don't think there are wildlife areas in Los Angeles. I am sorry but there are. In the wetlands that divided Playa del Rey, Marina del Rey, Westchester, and Culver City there was an area which contained many great species. Interestingly, and tragically enough, this area contained a number of endangered species. There were specific species of fox, raccoon, and three different birds that were endangered that just so happened to live in this very small area of Los Angeles. It was strange driving through this area everyday. It eventually became the subject of a bidding war between a number of very wealthy corporations. A number of different development companies were trying to purchase this land for a number of reasons. It turned out that Dreamworks (that movie studio/record label that is owned by Steven Spielberg/Jeffery Katzenberg and David Geffen) bough it. They bought it all, but then down the line they sold some of it to these other office space/condo development companies. So now, the wetland (which many different groups of people had tried to save) is being turned into condos and movie studios. There is still a small water portion that is being preserved for wildlife. It is about 1/4 the size that it originally was. So, my friend, the beautiful egret. She has vast wings, and white feathers, and stands strong on one leg for hours at a time. She has been reduced. She has been captured and put in the zoo. I love her and it breaks my heart that she is contained in the zoo. She should not be in the zoo. She needs wild reeds and cat tails to whisk past her beautifully gliding white underbelly. Right now, she thinks she only has grey gray walls surrounding her. Right now the bars, the bars that are only 2 and a 1'4 inches apart, stop her from making things good. The bars and the gra/ey walls and the zookeepers that come to check on her. I want to return to those wetlands, and I don't want those movie studios. I want my friend to return to full wing span and her choice of any berries that look nice and and any area that looks good for building egret nests. |