Will bee buy time to rethink Longmeadow?

Let's hear it for the rusty patched bumble bee! This small insect most of us have never heard of, much less seen, has at least temporarily halted construction of the ill-conceived Longmeadow Parkway project through the Brunner Family Forest Preserve.

A federal judge recently granted a temporary restraining order to allow time to consider the impact of the project on this endangered species.

The forest preserve was acquired with bond money approved by taxpayers with the understanding it would be used to preserve flora, fauna and scenic beauty. The decision of the Kane County Forest Preserve Commission to allow the parkway to plow through the heart of the preserve was an incredible abdication of the public trust.

The unneeded roadway would cause irreparable loss, degradation and fragmentation of habitat in the wildest stretch of the upper Fox River, threatening not just the bee but many other plant and animal species.

With any luck the bee's reprieve will buy the time necessary to allow the project to be reconsidered and its true cost in damage to the environment to be tallied.

Larry Bahr

Elgin