Mike Patrick wrote:

"They did a good job preserving much wetlands in that area, once you accept
that they decided to develop there at all (at times I feel that wetlands
are *targeted* by developers - there is so much land available in the cities
these days, why keep trashing natural areas????)."

Because we are rugged individualists, there is no effort to try to do
what's best for our society. Each developer gets what land he or she can
and works with it. It's usually (always?) cheaper out at the perimeter
(i.e., "natural areas"), so that's why you find hundreds of unoccupied
houses that could be fixed up (or razed and rebuilt) and hundreds of vacant
lots that could be developed in and around cities, and woodlots being cut
down for development in all directions at the edges. It really is one of
the major tragedies of our world, one I would make short shrift of if I
were elected dictator!

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416