Overdevelopment has not yet happened in Western New York.
It does not have to happen. True, the proclivities of developers, engi-
neers, and town planners of the past, motivated by profit and ex-
pansion of tax base, laid the forests of most of the nation largely
to waste. But Western New York is not yet fully developed.
     I would like to propose to developers and town planners that
they should preserve a portion of undeveloped land permanently as
forest. I have illustrated how it can be done with the completion
of Hidden Hollow: a 46-acre, 24-lot subdivision complete with a 30-
acre private forest in Hamburg. I developed it with attention to eco-
nomic feasibility and with encouragement from the Town of Ham-
burg, a town with environmentally conscious town planners.
     Hidden Hollow proves that developers and town planners, work-
ing together, can create private, tax-free, "never to be developed"
forests as well as publicly owned forest preserves.
     Naturally, an objection could be raised that we, as a society, might
lose valuable tax assessments if we set aside such land. My belief,
however, is that the benefits in health and esthetics created by
leaving forest areas in every community untouched and undevel-
oped will exceed the value of taxes collected had we developed every
acre of land.
     And while we, as a nation, preach to the people of Brazil and
other rain-forest countries, pontiff-rating to and pleading with them
not to cut down their precious rain  forest. we  could  at least be
doing something aside from talking.  In  the  past,  we  have  de-
stroyed, and are still destroying, our own precious temperate forest.
     I propose to have every developing town reserve, at a minimum,
one quarter of its total acreage. This reserve will be legally desig-
nated "Permanent Forest Land," whether it's publicly or privately
held. Western New York could set the standard for the nation by
adopting this proposal for effective land management.
     An oak tree can live 500 years. So can a maple. Typically, they're
cut down early and sold for timber. This is done even in our na-
tional forests.
     Maple, beech, oak, white pine, hemlock and others — giant trees,
fully mature, thick in diameter, 20 feet or more in circumference —
once covered the entire Northeast. It would be splendid for our de-
scendants to see a sight like this again, even if not in our lifetimes.
Because of the practices of our predecessors, we never got the
chance.
     But what if cities like New York, Washington, Chicago and
even Buffalo had mature forests in and around every neighborhood?
If past developers had left some of the forest in the cities for families
and for children to play in, would there be the alienation there is
now? By making provisions for more green space in the inner-city
environment, we are making provisions for a healthier society.
     If Western New York developing towns leave aquarter of their
land undeveloped, I believe that the people of these towns will be
rich.  Our area can be known as the first and foremost area of
strong and vital forest preservation.
     When engineers, developers, town planners and the people
share this sound environmental objective,  the profit in  terms  of
health and welfare will be manifested for generations to come.
The best way to induce nations such as Brazil to preserve their
valuable rain forests is to demonstrate through our example the
clear long-term advantages of conservation.
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FRANK PARLATO is a Buffalo developer.
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100, Buffalo N.Y. 14240