Don't Change Endangered Species Laws
I am writing concerning "Fighting for Habitat?" [Nov. 26, 2009]. Open land is important to have, especially in a place like Western Massachusetts, which thrives on its natural beauty.
Bill Pepin's push to pass the 31-word addition to the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program would be an immense mistake. The addition would further restrict local governments from restricting certain developments in certain areas. Western Mass. has many areas which are vulnerable and developing would hurt their environmental integrity.
As humans we also have a responsibility to ensure the protection of animal species that have been put in harm's way through our own actions. Therefore, the local Western Mass. community should be pushing to stop this addition and fight against Pepin's destructive tendencies. There is plenty of open land here that with governmental approval can be developed, but to restrict the power to regulate it could have drastic effects, not only environmentally but by drawing fewer people to our serene and scenic Western Mass.
Coby Kalter
UMass Amherst
Dino Tracks "Secret Marvel"
Your cover story on the dinosaur footprints at Amherst College was truly a delight! The tracks are a secret marvel of our valley, and the collection at the Amherst College Museum of Natural History, the largest such collection anywhere, is simply awesome. Bravo also to Mark Roessler's piece on Edward Hitchcock, whose role in the history of American science has been underappreciated for too long.
Once your readers have whetted their appetites for these beautiful fossils, they'll be happy to know that there are more places to see them. Based loosely on the Museums 10 model, science and nature organizations, historical museums and societies, and outdoor recreation sites all along the valley have been working together to plan publicity and programming about their own dinosaur footprints.
The Springfield Science Museum has a small but outstanding display of tracks, raindrop impressions and water ripple marks that you can actually touch. Further north, tracks are still in their "natural habitat" at The Trustees of Reservations' site on Rte. 5 in Holyoke. Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, the town where Edward Hitchcock was born and raised, has a few artifacts and fossils as well as considerable archival material from his family. In the Turners Falls/Gill area, a short hike leads to an old quarry at Barton Cove. Tracks from this area were sold to geologists, colleges and museums in America, Britain and Europe during the mid-19th century, when the fossil tracks were still a new puzzle to science. The collection at Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls is not yet on display, but comes out for special programs.
Plans are underway for upcoming events. Next summer, for example, the Great Falls Discovery Center will host a Jurassic Roadshow. People will be able to bring their fossils in to have them identified by a paleontologist who specializes in ichnology and might help to interpret complicated or unusual slabs. There will be other talks and presentations, too, still too early in the planning stage to announce.
One small caution: You may have heard of tracks being "collected" by fossil hunters in the past, but the removal of tracks or other fossils from any public site or private property without the owner's permission is illegal and will be prosecuted. Besides, we don't want to see our heritage for sale on e-Bay! If we all leave the tracks where we find them, others can experience for themselves the eerie mystery of standing right at the very spot where a dinosaur plunked down its foot one fine mucky day many millions of years ago. Doesn't the mere thought just send a shiver up your spine?
Sarah Doyle
Coordinator, Dinosaur Footprint Edutourism Project
Where Are Diocese's Reports?
The Associated Press reported on Nov. 16 that the St. Louis Archdiocese spent $352,000 last fiscal year on payments to victims of clergy sexual abuse—but $852,000 on legal fees defending against the suits. In fact, for five of the last 10 years, payments to lawyers outpaced payments to victims.
The response was varied. Advocacy groups complained about the imbalance as a sign of misguided priorities. Church officials replied that victims had received about $1.7 million more than church lawyers overall, and that money awarded to victims did not come from parish collections but from insurance and sales of real estate. The opinion of parishioners was also split. Some felt that the whole episode of abuse was dwindling down. They were not happy, but ready to accept high legal fees as a modern inconvenience of getting closure. Others were uncomfortable that the courts had to be involved at all.
As an area Catholic, I wondered how these disclosures compare to the record of the Springfield Diocese. It is not easy to track all these figures, but some of them have been included in past Annual Reports under the "Child Protection" category of the budget. I was surprised to find that it is now impossible to compare figures. The reason, I was told by diocesan officials on Elliot St. in Springfield, is that the Annual Report for fiscal year June 30, 2008-June 30, 2009, has not yet been published. Granted, financial reports are sometimes tardy. However, the Annual Report for fiscal year June 30, 2007-June 30, 2008, has also not yet been published.
They did not have an answer for my next question: why?
Robert M. Kelly
Lee
