Dear Editor:

Rachel Carson, author of "Silent Spring" and a writer with deep ties to both the Boothbay and Bristol peninsulas, would be ashamed of what the “environmentalists” at CMBG have done to the wetland habitat on their property. Every inch of the 20 acres they’ve clearcut, bulldozed, and blasted for parking lots is habitat for several nearby vernal pools. The Gardens claims to have adhered to Maine DEP’s 250-foot protection zone as their standard, but in fact have failed miserably to live up to it. As anyone who travels the Gaecklein Road can see — and please, everyone, come look — some of the vernal pools are within five feet of the clearcut.

Worse, leadership at the Gardens hasn’t had the moral courage to admit publicly that their original development plans threatened to turn Knickerbocker Lake, the Boothbay region’s drinking water supply, into an algae-filled mess. Yes, CMBG finally listened to the Water District’s experts and was forced to move its planned massive wastewater system out of the Knickerbocker watershed, but it’s time they admitted the original design was a mistake. If they can’t be environmentalists, then they should at least be honest developers.

And so it has been both a much noisier and a far quieter spring on the Gaecklein Road. Neighbors have heard more bulldozers and explosions by day than frogs at night. Gone are most of the amphibians which inhabited the vernal pools and other wetlands.

It is one thing for a developer to destroy acres of wetland habitat because they don’t care; it is worse when the same habitat is destroyed by a nonprofit which likes to brag about its green ethics.

But an ethic is a rule which limits your behavior, not a label you wear regardless of how you act. Environmentalists do not replace 20 acres of wetland habitat with parking lots, nor do they refuse to apologize once they understand that their ambition threatened the town water supply. This is the kind of hypocrisy which Rachel Carson, who understood the link between ambition and destruction, might have pointed out.

Jason Anthony

Bristol