In the words of the great Cole Porter in his one and only cowboy song: Don’t Fence Me In!

Or my dog. Or my friends and neighbors. Porter voices the craving of his fellow New Englanders for our open spaces.

To the land bank: it is not too late to restore Trade Wind. Give us back the best outdoor socializing area on this whole Island.

Over a dozen years I’ve been enjoying Trade Wind four to five days a week with and without my dog. Walking, jogging, biking, and best of all, socializing with a whole group of friends who also appreciated the beautiful trails and wide open spaces. Never have I been there without meeting or at least seeing other people. Until recently.

The last two times I was there, it was completely vacant as I walked the whole loop. When I called a friend a couple of days ago to say meet me there and we’ll run the dogs, she said “no thanks, the fence depresses me.”

The land bank will regain respect if it has the guts to reverse and fix a terrible decision rather than persisting in the arrogance of power. At least part of its mission is to integrate people with nature and educate people to respect the land through experience. If human use of preserved lands drops dramatically, education, integration and attachment to the land will also decrease. This does not serve the mission.

Trade Wind has been a great success and it can continue to be a space that positively promotes the land bank and maintains a social support system for the organization and the mission of preservation. But fences only separate us. Please, it is not too late.

Floyd and Daisy Lifton

Oak Bluffs