Another major piece of Waukesha County - - Ruby Farm - - is being tugged in opposite directions - - development, or 'development,' or preservation.
The key paragraph in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about Ruby Farm, linked above, tells the tale:
"A road-widening project scheduled for next year will demolish part of the farmstead. The fate of the remainder lies with a developer who bought the farm and adjacent vacant land."
You'd think that at some point there would be a therapeutic shock of recognition, a bolt of awareness, an "ah-ha" moment that would put the traffic congestion, water depletion and rising taxes for local services in Waukesha County into bold view, along these lines:
The more people you cram into once-open spaces, the more the negatives outweigh the positives, including lost heritage and future sustainability.
Who knows what it will take for people to see the light?
Uppity Wisconsin
Making Wisconsin Progressive Again
Saving Our Farmland
Mon, 03/09/2009 - 2:48pm | Sen. Kathleen V...
“We must protect our land,” urged the Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture. “Land is our most precious natural resource.”
Secretary Rod Nilsestuen testified before a Joint Hearing of the Assembly Agriculture Committee and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education. I had the distinct honor of chairing the Joint Hearing. The topic was protecting farmland – specifically the Working Lands Initiative.
We are permanently losing farmland at an alarming rate. State-wide we are losing about one township of productive farmland every year. UW research documented our state lost about 100,000 acres in the first five years of this decade. We simply cannot sustain such a loss of a vital part of our economy, our heritage and an irreplaceable natural resource.
Sprawl Marches On In Southeastern Wisconsin
Sun, 05/27/2007 - 6:00pm | James Rowen
Whither Ruby Farm? Preservation, or Pabst Farms II
James Rowen's blog | 
Add new comment | 
Tags: Environment, Farmland, Land, sprawl, water, Waukesha County, Wisconsin
New Wisconsin Oil Pipeline Hurts Farms, Forests
Sat, 05/12/2007 - 4:59pm | James Rowen
The new oil pipeline is to run from Superior to Delavan, but early segments are leaving farmers and landowners none too happy with the land acqusition tactics.