I have walked this stream near our home many times over the winter months, knowing that it will be a special place when the Spring fog moves in. I wasn’t disappointed. The emerging morning light provides just the hue needed for a special fog-shrouded photo.

But while fog provides beauty along a stream, it can’t hide the scars from construction equipment tearing up another ridgeline for home construction near Harvestwood Road. I knew trouble was coming when I saw the surveying stakes along the ridge during a morning walk earlier this year. The natural beauty of the ridgelines are part of the appeal of this part of the Blue Ridge but too many of them are lost to thoughtless construction of homes on the highest point of a ridge.

Will Floyd County wake up and stop this madness before it is too late? Or will the county suffer the same fate as Nelson County where mountaintop construction was allowed to destroy the crest of the Blue Ridge? The concern will not be heard by the deaf ears of our county government. But the answer can come only from those of us who live on and love this land.