As I stated in my letter published in the January 24th issue of the Journal in a rebuttal I wrote to Mark Fishaut’s letter, the accusations of specious Land Bank involvement in the TZLT (Town to Zylstra Lake Trail) are at best a wing and a prayer by a conspiracy theorist, and at worst a coordinated effort to smear the Land Bank. In defense of Mark Fishaut and his contributions to this community, I may have to believe the latter is at work.

Ron Whalen has recently chimed in with his letter yesterday with the same conspiracy theoretical thinking and tries to somehow legitimize his thoughts that the Land Bank is trying to cover something up. Quite the contrary. All the notations in Ron Whalen’s rant are tied directly to OTHER PROJECTS and never mention the TZLT trail. There are no fingerprints to be found. There is nothing there Ron, no matter how you try to connect the dots. You are disingenuous in your effort to create something out of nothing. Your attempt here to discredit the Land Bank with your smoke and mirrors and the spirit in which you do it is going to resonate this November. There are many trail projects that the Land Bank is involved in and thank God they are so we can get out into nature, but the TZLT is not one of them and never has been. There is a time and a place for good trails. Please, let’s just focus on the truth.

Jim Skoog

San Juan Island