MIKE BRAUN Wild places vanish

Civilization's march into places formerly wild continues, with the eviction of former residents carried out with nary a thought.
The most recent forced move came a couple of weeks ago when a resident in one of those former wild places, now called Boardman, had a fox evicted from its, er, the "new" resident's home.
As more and more rural land gets chewed up and spit back out as residential, commercial or other human habitat, the habitat of the former residents -- be it fox, deer, beaver or whatever -- vanishes for good.
NIMBY -- "Not in my back yard" -- the residents of these formerly wild places seem to be saying. They don't want the wild things that had been at home in these new yards to pose a threat to children, pets and landscape.
What's wrong with that, you might say? Wouldn't these wild critters be likely to bite, or cause significant destruction as well as present a possible health hazard?
Yes, they can. And some do. All we have to do is look to the raccoon problem we still have.
But, let's not lose sight of something here. They were here first. This is their home. Do we really have the right to commit what amounts to genocide on the local animal population?
Now, I'm no tree hugger. I like to fish and hunt, and trapping doesn't bother me either.
The point is that there are benefits to ensuring that these creatures survive. Diversity of nature is a good thing; eradicating animal life just to put up a new row of homes is shortsighted.
We have the responsibility of stewardship on the land, and that responsibility carries an obligation to care for all flora and fauna.
Irresponsible: It is irresponsible to continue trapping and moving animals. Today's relocated fox is sure to be someone else's problem tomorrow when the relocation area becomes the next development.
It seems incredibly stupid that, on one hand, some of our taxes pay for the state to reintroduce animals to Ohio's wild that have been extirpated or reduced in numbers, and, on the other, we pay to have wild animals in our midst moved elsewhere.
In the past several decades, Ohio wildlife experts have been busy trying to bring back wild turkey, North American river otters, snowshoe hares and trumpeter swans, to name just a few.
Some of these animals, such as the turkey, will be hunted. Others, such as the otters and the swans, are being reintroduced for the diversity they return to Ohio.
I can see someone building homes near a habitat that contains all of these animals and a panicked homeowner calling a wildlife trapper to rid his newly planted yard of these furry pests. NIMBY!
So what do we do? Quit building homes in wild areas? Probably not an option in a free society with a growing population.
How about taking into account that when you build in these areas, you will get more for your home-owning dollar. If you deem it important to live in the "country," then accept that in the "country," there are critters. And the "country" is as close as the next street over, as the urban areas sprawl farther and farther outward.
Teach them: Finally, teach your children. Make sure your kids know what wild creatures are and how they should respect them.
If we try to live together, rather than plowing everything under, we will be the richer for it.