Dear Friends:

During the City's recent webinar presentation on the Taylor Run stream restoration project, we heard a great deal about had bad the stream and forest looked and how many plants they were going to replace after all the heavy construction work on the stream was completed.  

We didn't hear a lot about all the extraordinary plants and animals that inhabit this stream valley that we feel should be carefully protected FIRST. Stream restoration projects in urban areas often fail because of all the development that sits upstream of watersheds like Taylor Run.  

ECA wants to make sure that two things happen: (1) We protect the existing natural resources of the area and (2) we estore some sort of natural equilibrium to the stream channel that will last and not result in more damage to the watershed in years to come.

It's a complex scientific and engineering problem. It requires a multidiscisciplinary approach involving river geologists, geomorphologists, biologists, engineers and, most importantly, the community.

Instead of working directly with the community to come up with a better plan, the City is asking us to send in our comments to a Survey Monkey.  This is not a way to develop a plan that we can all get behind.

Thanks for your support.

Andrew Macdonald, PhD Geology