I am a biologist and writer, a person who seeks the spiritual values of country life and nature. To me the idea of Easton/Talbot Co. not being a rural haven is deeply disturbing.

Why should we embrace the galloping suburbs? Have you tried driving lately in New Jersey, northern Delaware, or the Norfolk Virginia area? How about the Maryland western shore? Have you seen what developers are doing to lovely St. Mary's Co.? Do you have any sense of what life is like in Fairfax Co., Virginia? Have you experienced the population density on Long Island, NY? Walt Whitman would weep to see his once-rural formerly lovely island home.

My time here began in 1983 (at age 37) with osprey studies. Several years later I settled in for good, figuring there would be enough nature and country here to last my lifetime. But the current pace of development is making that a real horse race.

I implore you to Just Say Whoa. This is enlightened self-interest, nothing altruistic about it. And there are ways the town and county could promote the spiritual values of the land. Examples include: (1) A system of nature trails, with interpretive material, integrated into school curriculum. To know when a tree is in bloom or seed to recognize the return of a spring songbird from the tropics or the wild tundra swans in winter--these are fundamental gifts of life on Earth, and they should be offered to all. (2) Tax relief or other measures that support forest preservation, so that some forest is not harvested like so much corn when the trees reach economically valuable size. (3) A careful look at some of what is foisted off on us as "landscaping ." I grew up in treeish, nubbly New England, and the quantity of lawn here has always amazed and amused me.

We need to re-connect the practical and the beautiful, the secular and the sacred. We still have a chance to do that here.

Paul Spitzer