Wetlands value

To the editor:

Before the city of Lawrence completes its first “beltway” on the south side of town, I would like to ask the citizens to take another look at what we are blessed with on our southern border, the Baker Wetlands.

I don’t think growing cities derive much long-term solution to traffic problems from building bypasses. It seems that one trafficway begets another, as we can see from Kansas City and countless other examples. Also, it seems to me, they only encourage more gas consumption, not less.

However, my main point is to invite everyone to look again at the wetlands, its beauty and value to our community. We have an abundant wildlife and plant habitat right here that would be hard to find in most cities. Maybe you should take the time to enjoy the slide show on the wetlands at the public library on March 29. Enjoy a Sunday walk along the paths through this marshy wilderness. With the spring budding out all around us, there will be much to see. Possibly you will see something worth preserving as it is.

Automobiles can turn left or right to follow the road wherever it might be built. Who can tell us if the plants and animals, disturbed by a road through their habitat, can turn to a new home? Who knows for sure that they will return to our borders when we take away their present environs? Will they recover in the numbers comparable to what they are now?

Let’s all think long and hard before we despoil something that we might miss when it is gone.

Daniel Poull,

Lawrence