Editor,

I was going to let it go, but now that Marion Blue has lifted the lid on the horse manure debate with her Oct. 5 letter to the Editor, I’m compelled to weigh in.

As a user of the many and wonderful trails on the South End of the island, I too have had to navigate around enormous piles of horse dung during my wanderings. Luckily, I’ve been on foot and could either leap over the mounds or leave the trail and go around. Not so easy for bicyclists or parents with hiking strollers, I would imagine.

I’m not suggesting horse riders not use the trails. After all, these trails are for all of us and, when used responsibly, should remain so. I’m just suggesting that at some point — within a week, even two, perhaps — someone go back and remove the poop from the trails. I think it’s the responsible thing to do. We ask it of responsible dog owners and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask it of responsible horse owners.

Some of the reasoning voiced for leaving the mounds there have been that doing so would help retain the rural atmosphere of the island and that it’s all natural. Come on people, we’re not in the wilds of Montana. We’re a short ferry ride from one of the largest populated areas in the Pacific Northwest and these are public parks and trails. Hire some yahoos with overalls and banjos to roam the woods if you want to keep a truly rural character. Don’t do it by leaving excrement on our trails.

And as for horse poop being natural? Well, so are tsunamis, plagues of locusts, bouts of food-borne diarrhea and red tides. I can do without any or all of those, thank you very much. Even “natural” horse manure must be thoroughly composted before it is safe to use as a fertilizer.

Let’s all work together and find solutions that we can all live with. Don’t dismiss people’s concerns as non-issues and blithely move on.

Respectfully,

ANTOINETTE GROVE

Langley