To the editor:

Wendell Berry, a soil conservationist, wonders why solar panels aren’t being installed over the many existing parking lots in contemporary society. I wonder the same. If this were done in Douglas County, the mantra might be “Soils and Solar.” Similarly, I wonder why solar panels aren’t being installed on government owned lands in the former Tri-State Mining District of southeast Kansas, northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri? Take a look at the chat piles near Picher, Oklahoma, and note the absence of plant life and soil, along with the existing tall security fence — good conditions for solar farms. Could not incentives be given to return such lands to beneficial use and the tax rolls? I wonder.

Bill Dodd,

Lawrence