To the editor:

Baker University has taken a critical step back. When Roger Boyd first mentioned wetland mitigation he described using heavy machinery to excavate giant “plugs” of hydrophytic (water-loving) plants to transport into the farmland west of Louisiana Street. Instead, he and Mark Wellendorf are gathering seeds by hand.

Dozens of competent volunteers would happily assist them if invited. Wellendorf proclaimed, “We’re going to be creating new wetlands. We won’t be doing any destroying of wetlands.” Bless you, Mark.

A lot of painful word arrows have been flung by both sides in this long battle to keep the South Lawrence Trafficway from invading the wetlands.

Some of those fields where the mitigation would occur have been sprayed with pesticides and herbicides for decades. Only a limited portion contains the natural hydric soils essential to successful wetland restoration. Still, any of the original 18,000 acres of Wakarusa Wetlands that can be restored to some degree is worthwhile.

The next round of litigation will predictably attract more hateful – and too often racially tinged – blather from anonymous online commentators mindlessly screaming, “Build it!”

Professor Boyd says he was told by a Douglas County commissioner that the state would sell off any restored wetlands to developers if KDOT loses in federal court. This is mostly floodplain where development is prohibited or prohibitively expensive. That scenario is as unlikely as getting this soon-to-be $200 million crime against nature paid for with more federal “earmarks” after the next administration takes office. Don’t bet on it.

Mike Caron,
Lawrence