Sen. Burr keeps promise to land and water fund

Promises made, promises broken. Rare is the politician who keeps his word.

Sen. Richard Burr is proving himself to be a politician of the rarest sort. Burr is a champion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, responsible for conserving and maintaining access to millions of acres. Over its 50-plus year history, LWCF has funded more than 40,000 projects across the U.S. The fund makes cities more livable, improves fish and wildlife habitat, and supports our $887 billion outdoors economy.

Unfortunately, LWCF will expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress intervenes. Sen. Burr has crossed party lines to support LWCF and kept a promise to speak on the Senate floor “day after day after day” until lawmakers agree to permanently reauthorize and dedicate LWCF funding.

In North Carolina, 97 of our 100 counties have at least one LWCF-assisted park. From the nation’s most visited national park, The Blue Ridge Parkway, to national seashores and hundreds of municipal, state and federal projects — all are supported by LWCF. Contact lawmakers and remind them that LWCF is a success story worth supporting.

Luke Weingarten

Chairman, N.C. chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Raleigh

Dangerous scooters

Several days ago I was on the Interstate between Cary and Raleigh. I saw two young boys clearly under 18 without helmets riding scooters in the opposite direction of the traffic on the shoulder.

The next day I was driving on Blount Street crossing over Hillsborough when a women riding a scooter crossed in front of my car. I had the green light. Good news is she was wearing a helmet, the bad news is I came within inches of hitting her.

At that same time, three young boys flew across that same intersection right in front of moving traffic. That evening I was walking in the warehouse district downtown when a group of young men came toward me barreling down the sidewalk on scooters. I had to step off the sidewalk and wait for them to pass.

It’s a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured or killed. Please be careful if you ride scooters and to the companies I say get ready for lawsuits.

Rebecca Hayes

Raleigh

Backwards clock

Further proof that the Trump administration clock runs backwards (“Proposal would close EPA science adviser’s office,” Sept. 28):

“The Environmental Protection Agency plans to dissolve its Office of the Science Adviser, a senior post that was created to counsel the EPA administrator on the scientific research underpinning health and environmental regulations, according to a person familiar with the agency’s plans. The person spoke anonymously because the decision had not yet been made public.”

What the person did not make public is the secret plan to change the agency’s name from EPA to IPA — the Industry Protection Agency.

Howard Wasserman

Raleigh

Don’t worry

The Sept. 21 article “More coal ash ponds, hog lagoons spill over” recounts a statement from the federal Environmental Protection Agency: “without proper management, these contaminants can pollute waterways, ground water, drinking water, and the air.”

After President Trump came to “assess the damage,” he flew away on his sleigh (Air Force One), and I think I heard him exclaim “don’t worry North Carolinians, I came to help, and I have my EPA working as fast as possible to eliminate all those oppressive environmental regulations, which are just too burdensome on you all and add unnecessary costs to your businesses.”

Edward Link

Cary

Pigs felt fear

Hurricane Florence caused immense flooding and destruction throughout Eastern North Carolina. One largely overlooked tragedy was the drowning of an estimated 6,000 pigs and 3 million chickens trapped in confined animal feeding operations.

As we cheered the videos of rescuers bringing cats and dogs to safety, little thought was paid to the animals destined to become bacon and chicken nuggets. As the water rose within the confines of their barns, the pigs felt the same fear that dogs would have felt in that situation. The only difference was our lack of empathy.

There were no rescuers coming for them. Not only is this an unnecessary and inhumane loss of life, it is an environmental catastrophe. Looking at the aerial images of these flooded “farms,” bloated carcasses and the sheen of tons of putrid animal excrement can be seen floating.

Durham

Correction

A letter published Friday misspelled the first name of Jon Gibson of Raleigh.