Education Is Key to Public Lands’ Use, Not Barbed Wire and Locked Gates

Re “Greenbelt: Be Careful How You Use It” (editorial, March 17): This editorial appears to be a response to the 30 mountain bikers who insisted on greater utilization of the coastal greenbelt areas in Orange County. I agree with The Times philosophy on protecting our precious greenbelt areas in south Orange County. However, I find the protection procedure both elitist and unwise.

Tens of thousands of Orange County residents and taxpayers resent the governmental process in Orange County that has resulted in uncompleted roads, blocked bike trails and hiking paths, and thousands of acres of open space areas “restricted” from public access. This governmental narrow-mindedness has resulted in the public’s being less willing to enhance our future aesthetic community values when the past result of taxpayer expenditures has culminated in the public being “shut out” from reasonable use of public land.

As an elected official, my political challenge is always to do what is fair, right and just. In this respect, public officials in Orange County are constantly forced down the gauntlet between staunch environmentalists and overzealous developer interests. We have a duty to ourselves and to future generations to preserve and protect the environment. And as Americans, we also have the obligation to respect private property rights.

Now that we, in fact, have the treasure chest known as the Greenbelt Coastal Areas, we should not become shortsighted and forget that we, as human beings, are also an integral part of the natural environment.

Open space parkland management and conservation are perfectly justifiable government goals. However, the public is rapidly becoming disenchanted with the retarded bureaucracy that keeps tracts of land “off limits.”

The key to public use of open space parkland areas should involve education--not roadblocks, barbed wire and locked gates. Sharing of resources leads to respect.

If we are preserving these open space lands for the public by keeping them constantly closed, then whom, in fact, are we protecting them for?

I agree that fragile and natural elements of our open space parklands must be examined and considered before the general public is allowed complete access to these areas for use and enjoyment. Let’s not delay the day when we can feel leaves crunch under our feet on public pathways and hear the wind rustle through the trees. Use of public lands is our birthright, and we expect them open soon.

Instead of being overly (concerned) that we may “love it to death,” give us, as residents, the chance to love it now!

PAUL M. CHRISTIANSEN, City Councilman, Laguna Niguel