Why do we live on Orcas? I believe most of us live here because it provides a healthy, beautiful and safe environment for ourselves and our children.

I feel compelled to respond to the recent property rights debate spurred by the Critical Areas Ordinance and Shoreline Master Program.

Our personal property is an investment. But to justify destroying the ecological health of the Sound, and the property of our neighbors, in order to maintain our personal property values, is not common sense.

I’m tired of people yelling “my rights! my rights!” at the expense of the environment which provides our local seafood and many other pleasures, and at the expense of our neighbors, and community as a whole. These islands are sanctuary to people from across the country and beyond. Those willing to compromise the ecology are thus willing to compromise the Orcas economy, because the economy depends on the ecology.

To those who say “environmentalists” care more about the environment than people, I say that is self-serving and untrue. No matter how often it’s repeated, it remains untrue. Our quality of life, the health of our island’s economy, and the health of the environment are inextricably linked.

Protecting eelgrass protects forage fish. Forage fish feed the salmon. The salmon feed us. Whatever toxins enter the fatty tissue of the fish and animals we eat, end up in us.

The property rights issue always revolves around property values. Protecting our environment is about property values. Anytime you buy anything it’s an investment and it’s a risk – that’s what happens whenever you buy a piece of land. To those who believe that the protection of our local ecosystems decreases property values to the point of a taking, are you also seeking compensation from the corporations who brought us this economic downturn and the resulting loss of our property values?

Let’s be honest and call things what they are. Common sense is being good neighbors and good stewards of our environment. This means protecting it – for all of us, for our wildlife that we value, and for future generations.

Sharon Abreu

Eastsound