Like many residents in the Huntsville-Madison area, I recently awoke to the unmistakable sounds of heavy construction equipment rumbling across a field near our home.

I ran outside to a heart-wrenching sight -- an excavator was ripping up old-growth trees near a creek bank and tossing them into a pile like weeds from a flowerbed.

What took nature decades to grow, a diesel-powered excavator destroyed in mere seconds.

White oak. Black cherry. Elm and poplar. Gone.

And for what? Another five feet of sod and a crepe myrtle?

I believe in property rights and support economic development. But as a conservative, I also value the preservation of what we have, especially those things that make Alabama a special place to live.

Huntsville is our state’s boom-town. But after watching so many trees crash to the ground lately, I wonder if we may be on track to becoming the state’s ugly-town, too.

I naïvely thought we had ordinances governing the removal of certain old-growth trees on private land within city limits, or at least those that contribute to the habitat of a public creek that traverses several miles and crosses many jurisdictions. A waterway isn't just the water, but the boundaries that form its shape and protect its health.

Surely we take our trees as seriously as Mobile does, I assumed. Try cutting down an oak tree on Government Street and see what happens.

But when we contacted the City of Huntsville, they said, sorry -- the development isn’t on city property and they don’t have jurisdiction even though the creek flows into city property just a few feet further downstream.

So we tried the City of Madison. Not their problem, they said, because while the development would soon be annexed into their city, it hadn’t yet.

We finally contacted Madison County. Officials said they don’t have any regulations governing the removal of trees, even those along public waterways.

Our leaders aren't just passing the buck on this issue, they're not even touching it as it moves along. That's disappointing.

The forecast is clear: The booming, unchecked growth of Huntsville and Madison places them in danger of losing part of what makes them nice places to live.

Time for even pro-growth conservatives to hug some trees before they’re gone.

We should encourage local officials to adopt a one-for-one policy -- for every significant, old-growth type tree that’s removed, another of similar variety should be planted elsewhere on the same property.

Maybe the hassle of replenishing those trees would cause developers to be judicious about taking them down in the first place -- only removing those that are necessary.

Some developers are indeed good neighbors. To the credit of the developer near our house, he responded to our meeting requests and has shown remarkably good faith, voluntarily protecting the vast majority of the trees along the creek.

Others, however, may not care about the larger picture. Some may only be concerned with squeezing the most square footage out of the most square acres.

Trees, quite literally, stand in their way.

But that’s why we elect people like mayors and commissioners. They must think about all aspects of the communities they represent -- not only their economies, but also their health and even appearance.

Huntsville and Madison will continue to grow. That’s great.

But unless we establish joint processes and regulations to safeguard our beautiful community, it may eventually grow into strip after strip of characterless crepe myrtles and concrete.

Rachel Blackmon Bryars is a Huntsville-based writer, co-host of Belle Curve Podcast and managing partner of Bryars Communications, LLC. Connect with her at rachel@bryarscommunications.com.