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Until this point,
human populations in Vermont had been on the decline ever since the
booming railroad industry that brought many young New Englanders from
their homes and into the Great West. For the first time in nearly one
hundred years, resident and tourist growth began to boom, fueling
permanent settlement and a ski industry that moved the state rapidly
into the late 20th century.
After decades of
regrowth and rehabilitation of viable wildlife habitat, Vermont would
once again undergo a change (not nearly as dramatic as the
clearing of nearly 80% of the state's forest for pasture &
logging) that disregarded natural communities in favor of economic
stimulus. By the end of the Interstate creation, rocks had been
blasted, tree stands had been cleared, and a new highway sat in wary
proximity to the Winooski River and cut through the chain of the
Green Mountains.
A
view of the same section in 1960 upon completion of the highway.
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No landscape is
ever permanent. Vermont's Green Mountains once stood as high as
the Himalayas, sat next to a great sea, and were once (for more
than 96% of the land's existence) covered in glacial ice or tundra.
It is unwise to hope to clear away the highway for the sole
purpose of "what the land used to be". But for this same reason, it is also
unwise to believe that this interstate is all there is and all there
ever can be. As we move further into the 21st century and witness the
arrival of new technology, new energy innovations, and new ways of
thinking, can we not imagine our coexistence with the natural world
as well?
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Images
used by permission from the Vermont Historical Society. Copyright
2006, Vermont Historical Society. All rights reserved.
For
more information regarding...
Vermont Interstate construction, please see: http://www.freedomandunity.org/vt_transition/interstate.html
Vermont Interstate construction, please see: http://www.freedomandunity.org/vt_transition/interstate.html
Vermont population trends please
see: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/626203/Vermont/272487/Demographic-trends
Vermont
landscape studies please see: Wessels, Tom. (1997). Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England.
Woodstock,
VT: The Countryman's Press.
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