To the editor:

Thanks to Helen Price Johnson for her stand for Conservation Futures. This has been an essential tool for preserving the rural beauty of Island County and for keeping some small part of the islands available for public access. So many of us have worked so hard and spent huge numbers of hours to get Conservation Futures provisions enacted, it would be a major betrayal of public trust to disband it now.

As chair of the Camano Island Community Council, one of our missions was to achieve equity in futures tax distributions between Camano and Whidbey islands. This happened during the four years the council existed. Now is not the time to give up on this mission for all of Island County. So much of both islands is in private ownership that it is only through judicious use of Conservation Futures Funds that any land can be made available for public use and the preservation of native flora and fauna.

Keep up the good work, Helen, and Angie Homola too. You both are appreciated well beyond the borders of Whidbey Island.

Laura Lewis

Camano Island