Letter to the Editor, Ann Arbor News,
dated 9/7/2003, by Leigh Ann Boyd

"It is important to provide children with open and undeveloped wooded areas for creative play opportunities, but there are limited sites available for this type of activity in the West Area." Is this the rambling of a neighborhood association trying to stop development because they simply "don’t want new neighbors" as Judy McGovern would have you believe in her News article of September 7? No, it is a direct quote from the West Side Master Plan, developed by our city officials in 1995. It continues: "…undeveloped environmentally special areas provide residents with physical, spiritual and mental benefits. The importance of such natural areas should be carefully weighed when considering proposals for new developments that would remove, reduce, or adversely impact such areas."

The actions of the Friends of Dicken Woods, supported by the Huron Valley Watershed Committee, Allen’s Creek Watershed Committee, Sierra Club – Huron Valley, State Representative Chris Kolb, superintendent of schools Dr. George Fornero, Dicken Elementary principal Mary Ann Jaeger, former principal Kathy Scarnecchia, and over 250 Ann Arbor residents (not confined to the Dicken neighborhood) served to make the Parks Department aware of the benefits associated with saving Dicken Woods. The decision to support the purchase was not, as Judy McGovern stated, a case of the "squeaky wheel getting the cash." It was a decision based on thorough and intelligent research. The taxpayers of Ann Arbor should be proud that our city officials are striving to ensure that Ann Arbor will continue to be known as "Tree Town".

Signed,

Leigh Ann Boyd, Ann Arbor