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Natural connection needed here

Nature becomes out of focus and they no longer notice its decline.

Dear Editor:

I was talking to a person that moved to Summerland from Kelowna a few years ago.

He said he had moved here because of the open spaces, the orchards and the ambience of a small community, where he has gotten to know many more people than in the much longer time he was in Kelowna.

He has much more time to commune with nature now, too, as he spends time biking in the area.

This is often the problem with life in the big cities.

People there are no longer in touch with nature.

They spend their leisure time looking at TV and its celebrities.  This has become more significant to them than a knowledge of local birds and edible wild plants.

Nature becomes out of focus and they no longer notice its decline.

It is only those of us who deal with nature on a daily basis; who notice when the birds are gone; when we get more and more intrusive plants into our fields; when we have lost control of our farm land with the continuous intrusion of  residential and industrial buildings.

When nature as a whole becomes less interesting to the urbanite, it makes it even less likely that they will pay attention to it.

When that happens it won’t matter if we lose our orchards, our vineyards, or our backyard gardens.

Our natural habitat  and our agricultural way of life will be gone with it.

Frank Martens

Summerland