I've had this house for over 60 years. The pretty little creek (reason I bought this acreage and its crummy beach shack) has been totally ruined due to attempts to develop the hundreds of acres on two sides, a would-be development of almost 300 acres that has failed eight times...so far. Several of the developers did illegal things in a last-ditch attempt to avoid bankruptcy. One channelized the creek immediately below our place, so beavers moved in to "fix" things, building dams throughout the watershed. When there was a major storm in '96, a big dam not very far above our driveway blew out, taking out all the driveway around/above the culvert. One developer got permission from the City to extend a major road a half-mile into our watershed, at a place where the slope rises 500' in a half mile (really steep)...without any plan to deal with runoff, so water simply pours off the hill, into the back of our house, down the driveway, flooding it. This is the 14th winter I've often had to park all the way out beside the road to avoid having my car trapped for days by high water.
Worst of all, our local school dist. bought 58 acres, about 2/3rds of it draining into the creek's watershed. Although they have no immediate or even long-term firm plans to build, they sliced down all the trees and then bulldozed all the ground: when it rains hard, all that loose dirt moves down the steep hills, blows out old legacy roads, and causes huge floods, depositing tons of silt into the creek. As a result, there's nothing in the creek (no frogs or plants) for the ducks, Canada geese, or our resident heron to eat. This is the second year that the Canada geese have returned on schedule, but never built a nest, nor are there many ducks, none of them nesting. Our once-resident heron is often missing for a day or two, foraging for food elsewhere. I no longer fall asleep at night listening to a froggy chorus. Instead of the pretty little creek, I have a new half-acre of ugly mud flat/marsh in my lower front yard. Only "benefit" is that I have less grass to mow, but I don't mind mowing at all.
Yes, development is a wonderful thing...NOT!
Here's a photo of the resident heron and an egret which continues to try to move into our little valley, resulting in spectacular aerial combat right outside my big office window!