"Five years ago, we residents of Morganton voted to keep the publicly owned piece of land known as Scott Woods

in a natural, undeveloped state. Our thinking was that, if no shopping centers or houses were built there, Scott Woods would continue to benefit our community as a natural parkland. But now that our town planning committee wants to purchase the land and build a school there, we should reconsider this issue. If the land becomes a school site, no shopping centers or houses can be built there, and substantial acreage would probably be devoted to athletic fields. There would be no better use of land in our community than this, since a large majority of our children participate in sports, and Scott Woods would continue to benefit our community as natural parkland." The letter suggests that the Morganton residents want to conside rbuilding a school on the "Scott woods" land which was originally marked to be a parkland.The arguements of the residents supporting this decision seem to be superficial and hastily made. It was decided that the Scott Woods be a parkland where no houses or shopping centres be built.The whole objective behind this was to have a part of the town in a natural, undeveloped state . A balance with the ecosystem is absolutely necessary and shouldnot be compromised at any cost.If a school or any other building which may be essential for the society to some extent , is built on that land then the town will not have a parkland at all. The earth that we live on is not only for human beings, it is for all the living beings. Man is the last one to have come on this earth and so it is our primary duty to maintain this earth and make it a better place for the future generations of all living beings. If we compromise on the environment which has created and nourished us , then it will not take long before we are driven out of it. The rapidly growing environmental issues of pollution, extinction are to be tacled by all of us, and as a part of a larger society of the living world, we have to do what we can do. Destroying the parkland would be another step to betraying our environment. Secondly, the town planning commitee may have some personal selfish interests in their suggestion of using the parkland. Also, the proposal of building a school might be an "emotional blackmailing" strategy by some people who will derive profits by using some portion of the land for commercial projects. Who can tell for sure that a substantial land will be devoted to athletic fields. And even if it is, it will not be entirely natural. Is Morganton town in need of a school? This has to be verified before building one. And even if a school is required , some other land can be used for it. Morganton is definately in need of parklands. The whole world is surely in need of lands which are left to nature to develop and hence I think that the town should not give up on their positive effort to contribute to having a better and healthier surrounding.