Soon you will have the option of implementing, in a robust way, the recommendations of highly trained scientists, experts in the arcane and subtle interactions between man and his surroundings.

If you do give life to their work it will not be because the people you have pleased will have out-shouted, at public hearings, the people you have angered. You know the reverse has been true, that, at these hearings, the opponents of these changes outnumber those who support them by eight to one. But this will not deter you, because you understand that county government has not listened to environmentalists for years, and you are not surprised to find that most not longer come to such meetings. You know that they are many, and that the public hearings are not a vote.

Nor will it be because you hope to avoid legal suits, for the people you will anger have more money to spend on lawyers than the people you will please. You know your decision will be challenged.

For some of you, your own deep-seated political beliefs will be no help, because you fear you have given birth to that big, smothering government you detest, the snake constricting the landowner you see often in these pages. You must conclude it is a job which has to be done to protect what is special about our county, and ask yourself “If government does not do this job, who will?”

So if you do turn these recommendations into policy, you will take a contested and uncharted stand, a departure from many years of comfortable stalling. You will make this difficult choice because you know it is the long-range interest of this unique county and its creatures, and that the number of people you have finally heard outnumber those you have angered by far more than eight to one.

Bill Cook

Waldron