I read David Brooks’s article (“This land is your land, and it’s worth $146 million,”Sunday Monitor Local & State, Feb. 10) with mixed emotions. I was heartened to learn that Concord and surrounding towns collectively own thousands of acres of open space, but I was disturbed by the narrow-minded approach of trying to determine their “value” based on the potential monetary return from resource extraction or commercial development.
These parcels are mere crumbs compared to the grandeur of the White Mountain National Forest or of our national parks. However, they are important oases of ecologic diversity in the urban/suburban landscape that contribute to the health of the forest at large, as well as providing recreational opportunity for all of us in the hectic hubbub of our 21st-century lives without traveling hundreds of miles or taking a vacation day. To me, their value can only be described as priceless.
It follows that we must vigorously defend their continued existence in perpetuity for future generations. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “In wilderness is the preservation of the world.”
FRANK BETCHART
Concord