<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp28dbab47yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div id="ydp28dbab47yiv9017992903"><div><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" class="ydp28dbab47yiv9017992903ydp4673201yahoo-style-wrap"><div id="ydp28dbab47yiv9017992903ydp4673201yiv6122151828"><div><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" class="ydp28dbab47yiv9017992903ydp4673201yiv6122151828ydpcc4ea74byahoo-style-wrap"><div id="ydp28dbab47yiv9017992903ydp4673201yiv6122151828ydpcc4ea74byiv3335355051"><div><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;" class="ydp28dbab47yiv9017992903ydp4673201yiv6122151828ydpcc4ea74byiv3335355051yahoo-style-wrap"><div dir="ltr">Dear Connie and Tweeters,</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Thanks Connie for the early warning of this unfortunate decision to remove Cottonwoods from Union Bay.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Connie Sidles you are a great hero and I have witnessed the effects of your dynamic leadership of course around Union Bay but also at Cheasty Greenbelt where there is now a birder-presence on an organized monthly basis. Thank you Connie!</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">As for the grove, this is terribly sad--yet another injury to the Natural World that has taken so many. It turns upside down the trope of kids loving Nature and protecting it from the old folks--Although I doubt the kids have been polled as to whether they really want this.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">But I have one quibble. I think the restoration movement has gone berserk over-planting conifers and seemingly attempting to turn natural areas into monocultures resembling a Weyerhaeuser tree farm. You can see this in Three Forks, Chinook Bend, all over the place and even dare I say Capehart. I believe that all the Native NW deciduous trees including, Ash, Alder, Maple and Cottonwood and Birch as well as non-deciduous Madronas are more valuable for the wildlife that is most in the crosshairs, such as neotropical insectivorous birds, than are the Conifers. I am not credentialed in the least in Botany, Wildlife Biology or Ecology, so take this as an opinion. However, although I'm not sure it's fair to drag someone in here, I believe Doc (Dennis) Paulson has expressed this view or something similar and that may be where my conviction originated.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">That said, thanks Connie for all you have done for the Montlake Fill, oops, I mean Union Bay and thanks for this latest heads-up.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Cheers,</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Ed Newbold</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>