Ignorance Leads to Loss of Wildlife

It was ironic to read the Jan. 30 edition of The Times. First, I read an article in the View section about how even urban children in Los Angeles can learn to bond with nature. Then, in the same edition, there was a Metro/Valley report that a caustic spill flowed into the Sepulveda Basin wildlife refuge.

These stories brought back a sickening memory from last summer. I brought my 4-year-old son to the basin and he was fascinated to see schools of fish and polliwogs in the Los Angeles River. We could see hundreds of fish from a bridge that overlooks the river.

A couple of weeks later we returned to a scene of horror. We could see a steady stream of floating bodies of aquatic life. The fish were either belly-up or in their death throes. The polliwogs floated by, half-formed into the frogs they would never become.

My son was stunned and said, “This makes me very sad.” I searched for words to console him, but none came since I was also sad. I finally told him that something bad got in the river.

He asked who would do that? I said “people don’t know any better.”

As I told people about the incident, I found that many didn’t even know there were fish in the river, even some of the people that use the area to jog, roller-skate, picnic or walk.

So maybe that is the reason; people just don’t know. Well, maybe it’s about time for people to know. Or soon it will be another case of not knowing what we had until it’s gone. And our children will inherit a sterile world that their parents created by ignorance.

GEORGE HUNT

Van Nuys