To the editor:

What constitutes a “natural wetland area”?

I grew up in rural south Lawrence and, as a child, I rode a school bus right down the middle of 35th Street, between Louisiana Street and Haskell Avenue. I can also recall nothing but milo and corn growing on both the north and south sides of the road. When I would walk the river, to fish or hunt, there were no manmade control gates, but now there are many manmade gates to keep the water in this section of land. Is a manmade gate natural, and is a wetland area that is under gated control really natural?

I am one to be friendly to our environment, but don’t we also need to think about growth and the ability to move the hundreds of thousands of cars and large semi-trailer trucks from the congested streets of Lawrence. I think 35th Street is a great location to continue the bypass, which is now “the road to noplace,” but please no more stoplights like the one on Wakarusa Drive. After all it is to move traffic swiftly through the city, not to stop and go like 23rd Street.

Matt Montgomery,

Eudora