Don Torino,  the sage of the Bergen County Audubon Society, wrote a wonderful column this week about our vanishing open space. It's posted on the Meadowlands Blog.

Here's a sample:

No matter if it’s a Northern Harrier or Eastern Tailed-Blue, a Bumble Bee or Little Brown Bat, all species are important and play an important, vital role in maintaining a diverse habitat that supports all life, including our endangered species.

We cannot have Bald Eagles if we don’t keep the water clean so that they can have healthy populations of fish, and if we don’t protect and save the wetlands and wildlife around them.

We can’t have Peregrine Falcons unless we protect waterfowl and shorebirds, and we will never have the Wood Thrush fill our forests with their music unless we save our Oak Trees and native plants which are the foundation of every healthy habitat.

There are no Monarch Butterflies without milkweed and there is no milkweed unless we protect the habitat in which it grows.

All habitats and wildlife is worth saving and fighting for and very often it’s not those big, obvious things that make the fields and meadows of our neighborhoods important. More often than not it’s the things we look past, ignoring the obvious while searching for the ones species that we hope will save us.

You can read Don's column here.

(Above, a recent Eastern Tailed-Blue from the Celery Farm.)