The idea of a recconveyance of 8,700 acres of land in the Lake Whatcom watershed is an idea that should have been put to rest some time ago. In case nobody has recognized it, we are still in a recession and our efforts as a County Council should not be looking for frills and fancy stuff so that we can say look at what we did. Rather, the council should be addressing ways to get people back to work, finding ways to attract new business, etc. The question is whether a park double the size of the land owned by the county is a want or a need. If you were to ask the people who are suffering economically, I believe that you would get a different answer to the question. Keep in mind, there already are 222,000-plus acres in Whatcom County that are available to recreate on and the BLM does allow for certain uses of the property right now. Why change?

Bill Henshaw

Bellingham