To golf or not to golf seems to be the question regarding uses of the lovely chunk of open land in the center of our town.

I have followed, with interest, the opinions and ideas of others on possible uses for the area we now call the golf course. I think there is another important group currently using the course: wildlife. Creatures, be they deer, raccoons and coyotes, or burrowers such as rabbits, mountain beavers, moles, pocket gophers, or, in the naturally occurring watery areas, frogs, newts, ducks and red-winged blackbirds, not to mention the super tiny insects, creepy crawlies, and other life forms that are all there, I am pretty sure. They seem to have adapted to the occasional golf ball flying by.

I am not a golfer and also not opposed to some of the various public park features that others have suggested. I think that if golfing is abandoned we open yet another place to illegal camping and other illicit uses. Perhaps golf could coexist with other activities if golf days were clear and well posted.

Here in paradise we have multiple recreation spaces such as beaches, other parks, courts, trails, the Fort, and walkable neighborhoods. Might we envision the golf course more creatively, perhaps with special facilities and programs where truly needed and appropriate, but also as our urban wilderness with the value, for ourselves and other creatures, intrinsic in open space?

Ann Candioto
PORT TOWNSEND