BY GEORGIA STRICKFADEN
Los Alamos

When the area where the Los Alamos Golf Course is today was homesteaded over 100 years ago, the trees surrounding the farmed fields to the south were  already about 100+ years old. These slow-growing evergreens cannot be justifiably replaced.  Nature takes care of watering them and the native understory growth, not to mention their life-expectancy could be yet another couple of hundred years.

It is foolish to sacrifice old-growth trees for expansion of the golf course. Maintaining this great facility and adding improvements and upgrades to the existing course is certainly in order. Other solutions to the driving range issue have been offered, so we need to live within our boundaries and continue being graced by the pines.