We, the citizens concerned of the environmental impact that installing high power utility towers and lines that ITC has proposed as a potential route, petition ITC to seek a route that avoids the Drumhiller Marsh wetland by merely moving the route west several hundred feet to higher ground, to avoid disruption to the ecosystem wetland and streams.

The marsh is a protected wetland and contains a stream that ITC wants to install high power utility poles and lines almost directly over it.  The construction of these poles will require moving and excavating the soil, adding fill, and the use of heavy equipment.  These activities will disrupt the soil, plant life, and stream the protection laws are aimed at protecting.  There is also a threat that the high voltage wires will harm the sensitive ecosystem and wildlife that make the marsh their home.

The marsh flowers with milkweed in the summer.  This plant is currently in the process of being protected as it's the only plant the monarch butterfly (also endangered) uses to lay their eggs. The milkweed is the only plant their caterpillars eat.  Dually they play an important role with bee population as bees pollinate milkweed.  The marsh is full of monarchs in the summer.  It is also home to the eastern massasauga rattlesnake.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protects the eastern massasauga rattlesnake under the Endangered Species Act. Bald eagles and countless species of birds and indigenous plants also inhabit the marsh.

Canary grass in the marsh is also an extreme fire danger, as it is very thick and beneath it is muck.  With men and equipment being in the marsh, it only takes a cigarette, or an inadvertent reflection that might cause a spark. In the past there was a bog fire that burned for years.  

We petition ITC to redirect the Utility Poles proposed route well to the west. This avoids the wetlands, marsh, streams, and natural springs, protecting it's ecosystem, including it's wildlife and indigenous plants.