University of Houston-Downtown got seven new trees this week thanks to Dreissen Fellow La’Vonte Holt. This 40 acre urban university, a part of the University of Houston system, boasts a student population of over 15,000 students. In what was thought to be a relatively easy thing to get approved turned into a battle of perseverance but La’Vonte prevailed despite the City of Houston bureaucracy’s best attempts to have nothing done by not returning calls for months or sending CFACT personnel on wild goose hunts to find the right person to approve an attempt to donate some trees to the city. This is no exaggeration as scores of calls and emails to various administrators each week made some think this project might never occur but La’Vonte was determined and today he, working with other grassroots Houstonians planted seven beautiful trees on his campus.
La’Vonte asserted that, “In efforts to bring attention to Earth Day; we decided to plant trees. Despite severe weather conditions [amongst other difficulties previously described by the author] we were able to plant seven trees! With great support from the University we were able to pull this off.”
This is yet another demonstration of how governments have again and again proven to be the worst stewards of our environment. As Learn Liberty asserts in their article, “What the Government Gets Wrong About Environmental Stewardship,” the government owns almost a quarter of America’s land and through complete mismanagement and outright neglect almost a third of that land is continually at high risk for catastrophic wildfires. Private ownership gives a person a vested interest in maintaining their property and while their are exceptions, generally people care for the things they spend their personal resources on.
But we digress, we applaud he accomplishments of this university’s students whom fought through hardship to make their university a better place for wildlife and people.
