A Memory Worth Reliving

Posted by Interdisciplinary 6 - The Sierra Nevada

April 5, 2007

An essay by Eric Cohen

On a cool November morning of September I, 1995, I awoke sitting in bed, glancing over at the calendar to my left. I realized it was the day my family would be moving, for my father received a transfer to McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, California. We had bought a house in Granite Bay, about twenty miles north of the city. I was only seven years old at the time, and remember my excitement to be moving to a place I had believed had vast open grasslands and plenty of wild species roaming all around.

It was a four day drive before we began entering the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and as we began exiting the freeway, a heard of deer grazed on the hillside beside us. I stared in amazing disbelief, for the number of wild deer was greater than any I had ever seen. The city of Roseville was located about ten miles north of our exiting ramp, and much of the land had not yet been developed. "My family is blessed to be living in such a beautiful area," I thought, "hopefully never to be disturbed by harsh realities in the surrounding world."

A few months passed before my family began planning a trip to Lake Tahoe. We explored the mountainside around us, amazed that so many pines and oaks scattered the rocky landscape. As the forest cleared up, many open areas of native grasslands gave the land ascent of color along with the flowers blossoming in the underbrush. A lot of the area had been undisturbed by man for thousands of years, the immense life forms showing a very healthy environment around us.

Eventually, we reached Sequoia National Park, where many giant sequoias grew and were protected by law. We could walk underneath the roots of a tree, for the species stood so tall it looked as if it were up into the clouds. I later read a sign that said many of these trees had been cut down by pioneers in the 19th Century, with no rightful cause but to prove that they actually existed. I felt a sense of sadness come to me, but my mother patted my back and assured me that California would do everything it could to protect these magnificent life forms.

A few days later, we stopped at Donner Lake to take pictures and view the place where the Donner Party had originally passed through. We hiked up a trail that led up to the state line, and I played with myself by jumping from one state to the other, laughing with my parents. After having enough amusement, we moved along and read signs that told about the Donner Party's journey through the mountains. It was astonishing to read that they reverted to cannibalism once their food supply had run out.

Finally, our last day was spent hiking around the shores of Lake Tahoe. Birds chirped in trees, chipmunks squirmed across the soil, and hawk soared high above. I could feel as if I had stepped back three hundred years, before Europeans had colonized the continent, living in the old world of the Native American. Everything felt so pure, and even as a seven-year-old boy, I knew that this place had life in itself. This was the very life of the Sierra Nevada.

Now that I am nineteen, many years have passed and the area is developing very quickly. I pray that Placer County and other areas in the Sierra establish a no growth policy, in where builders have to displace buildings they have already constructed to build more. The human population grows ever larger, and this is a great threat not only to the Sierra but to humanity itself. If too many people exist, too little space exists for living, not enough food is available, and the economy will likely go short because of a higher unemployment rate. China already has restrictions, and I fear the United States might have to set limits someday as well. We need to find some way to stabilize the population so that the Sierra can be safe from being over developed, and so humans can live in peace.