New Toll Roads and Wilderness

* I find the juxtaposition of two articles about the environment in Orange County on the front page of the Metro section on Dec. 11 particularly ironic.

In one, we have relief on the part of biologists that a fire in Upper Newport Bay did only minimal damage to the fragile wetlands. Below that, we have an article on new Transportation Corridor Agencies chief Walter Kreutzen’s determination to push ahead with the last portion of the toll roads in some of the most ecologically sensitive land in Orange County.

Certainly, that project will negatively impact the environment in Orange County not only directly by the destruction of habitats, but also indirectly through the areas for development that it opens up.

And, do not be mistaken, that is the main purpose of these toll roads: to open up otherwise inaccessible land for development. After all, the biggest contributors to the county Board of Supervisors were developers. Meanwhile, the ecological restoration that is underway by the TCA is all an “experiment,” according to Lisa Telles, the TCA spokeswoman. Before these projects were approved, did the TCA make clear to the courts that restoration was experimental and was unlikely to be successful?

Of course, blaming it on the weather is the easy thing to do. Just ignore the many published articles that show that restoration is an extremely expensive, time-consuming process that is simply more than sprinkling seed and transplanting plants, and is more often than not unsuccessful, only because humans can’t re-create in a couple of years what took nature hundreds of years to balance.

Were there ever severe financial penalties put in place to make the TCA think twice about destroying land if restoration was unsuccessful? I hardly think so.

ARMAN AFAGH

Fountain Valley

* At first glance, Kevin M. O’Brien’s contention in a Dec. 6 letter that local wild animals will ultimately “flourish” if subjected to being smacked on the new toll road struck me as being both inane and infuriating.

But I realized that not only could this be a version of natural selection people might like, but also provide a truly Orange County style environmental ethos.

Why, the more toll roads and malls and housing tracts we push onto the county’s remaining open space, the more wily and resourceful our “flourishing,” albeit dwindling, local species will become. I reckon that my first impression was most likely the right one in this case, though.

I’ve got to wonder about this straw man, phony conflict between hungry children and endangered species. Isn’t it conceivable in a county of such affluence that we could try to help both?

TIMOTHY P. RYAN

Capistrano Beach

* Kevin O’Brien and the Dec. 13 replies all missed the point of the fences. It has less to do with saving the animals and more to do with the damage that can and does occur from collisions with the so-called dumb animals.

The speed limit is 65 miles per hour and we all know that that limit is exceeded on a regular basis. Has anyone seen the damage that can be caused by a collision with an animal of any size at that speed?

The loss of life can be a human’s as well as the animal’s. When an animal runs onto the road, whether or not the vehicle hits it, the human driver is likely to lose control of the vehicle and disaster could and does result.

Ask anyone who has hit a deer or a tree they hit trying to avoid hitting the deer. The $250,000 seems a reasonable price to pay for the extra safety, at least until the animals “learn” not to cross the road.

DIANNE HOFFMAN

Westminster

* Here’s a novel idea for the land the Eastern Transportation Corridor cuts through: Create a wilderness park. Or is it too late, again?

KIMBERLY VOLLMER

Rancho Santa Margarita