To animals, their space is their whole environment which extends beyond artificial, human property lines. Resulting daily incursion of innocent petting zoo mentality disrupts herd reproduction, milk production and eventually loss of farming activity. Trail users will, unknowingly, end up destroying what they came to see.

Unaware visitors making superficial decisions scare farmers. Some years ago an island farmer incurred a massive legal expense when a visitor turned the farmer in for animal neglect because it was in need of hoof trimming due to circumstances beyond the farmer’s control. Concern of several farmers is to sell now so as to avoid their potential of financially destructing legal expense.

San Juan Valley Road is only 40 feet across with two 10-foot wide lanes and two 10-foot drainage strips, now degraded to a substandard state that is currently in dire reconstruction need because of years of limited road maintenance funding preventing needed attention. Diverting limited year-round road maintenance funds towards summer visitor recreation should clearly demonstrate poor judgment because lack of sufficient study would have not allowed this proposal to have progressed this far—unless island farming has become inconsequential.

Appearance is no room for widening for bicycle lanes. Converting what presents as insignificant land to create the pathway, in total, removes limited food growth for animals thus increasing, again, farming costs by ferrying hay and straw.

Last, Island Rec creates trails without providing any relief accommodation requiring trail users to urinate and defecate anywhere, in public, on private land, daily. Where is their accountability?

Terry Forsyth,

San Juan Island