Regarding Coulee Dam's natural resources, parks, trees, etc.

I wish to commend Mayor Wilder, the Coulee Dam Town Council, and the Natural Resources and Parks Board for the time and effort they have spent on bringing our Comprehensive Plan for the town up to date.

In researching the history involved, I discovered that the first ordinance was passed in 1959. It is very short, establishing a Parks Board. Since then, the town has gone through many changes and revisions. Changes took place in 1990, 2006 and 2008. Now we are faced with possibly more changes.

In 1998 a very comprehensive plan was completed which covered our natural resources, including our trees. The year 2006 saw more changes, and now we are faced with another update. This is a slow and cumbersome process which has made it very difficult for some of us to remain patient as we work our way through all the steps required to remove an unhealthy tree, or even prune back a shrub that has overgrown its space on the parking strip.

If you would like to help speed up the process, I suggest that you volunteer to become a member of the Tree Board, which advises the Resource Board on any actions to be taken. As I understand it, no action can be taken unless our Tree Board is staffed.

Again, I commend the people already working on the problems. Now it takes community involvement and people willing to volunteer to become members of the Tree Board so that the first step can be taken to work our way through this process.

Carol Netzel