The Clearing - Edit2

[dukealien]

The inversion of 'thorny wild' is rhyme driven, coming after scrub-oaks makes the inversion more prominent. 
The enjambment of 'could' is also rhyme driven, the line makes no sense without the follow on.
'forest-glad' is a bit cute, it's unnatural language and a poetic condensing that is meter driven.
'contrived' also is rhyme driven, no one says a Cat contrived to knock down something, you make a problem for yourself by anthropomorphizing the Cat, the real culprits are never mentioned.
Although I also find capitalizing every line old fashioned it is quite acceptable to formalists.  Indenting the volta (last couplet) is not.
I have concentrated on the mistakes here, there are some good lines and I enjoyed the the poem from 'Steel Taloned..' to the end. I don't mind the theme, it's not new but what is?  I also find the irregular meter well handled, it reads well.

Thanks for this very insightful critique.  While I have not responded to every one of your criticisms in the latest edit (below and in the IP), I've made changes to render the inversion (L2) less blatant and "forest-glad" less cute.  The Cat no longer "contrives" - it becomes quite rambunctious (if only I could find feet to describe its annoying backup beeps - I swear, given the percentage of its time spent in reverse according to that, it should have been in Amarillo by the end of the week).

I see the volta at L9 rather than L13, and wasn't aware that indenting the couplet is discouraged.  When the quatrains and couplet are all separated by blank lines, I don't indent (except in special circumstances).  Have to try it at home without indent and see how it reads...

Edit 2

Just north of my house lay a little wood,
Ten acres packed with thorny scrub-oaks, wild,
Cut by a deep ravine.  Town-bred, I could
Lose track and time there; forest-charmed I smiled.
Last week a yellow diesel Cat appeared,
Steel-taloned, dozer blade down at its head.
With screeching treads it twisted, struck, and reared,
Uprooting every tree alive or dead.
Now, oaks torn down, I see far neighbors where
My view was wooded; spacious houses rise.
Where squirrels rushed and owls would hoot and flare,
Near neighbors soon will share my emptied skies.
    Some fuel and twenty tons of steel that roams
    Did this - those and the yearning dream of homes.


Author’s note: It transpired that the new development was named “The Preserve at Oak Grove.”  It has now been renamed “Nine Oaks.”