These regulations were rewritten with the express purpose of weakening environmental protections in order to allow developers easier access to these fragile and ecologically important environments. As if developers in this county or anywhere in this country need help paving and developing over every inch of our earth they can get their hands on. Let's now help them access the special places, the environmentally sensitive and unique areas. We who care about our natural heritage have dreaded the unspoken anti-environmental agenda of this president, but hoped that following last September's tragedy, he might forget. Silly us.
In a strange coincidence, today I also came upon a book, entitled "Let Them Live," by Dorothy P. Lathrop, published in 1951. It's an eloquently written informational children's book about our natural world and the other creatures that share it with us. For 1951, Lathrop's perspective is surprisingly sensitive and perceptive of environmental problems, speaking on issues from species extinctions to aquatic resource use. "Too many swamps and marshes have been drained, too many beaver ponds destroyed."
It is difficult to understand how our society, exemplified by the actions of this president, can continue to be insensitive and indifferent to the huge negative impact we are having on our natural environment. I'm sure these new regulations will come to play in the SLT battle, but many of us are prepared to fight to protect Lawrence's natural wetlands (NOT man-made, as some misinformed people persist in claiming). As Lathrop puts it, "It is not the privilege of the few to waste for their own gain the lives of earth's creatures. Nature created each kind for a special purpose and those of us who want them to live have the right to demand that they shall not be destroyed."
Sharon Dewey,
Lawrence
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