LETTERS: LACK OF CONCERN DISAPPOINTS PROPERTY OWNER

To the editor:

As you reported, I have been attempting to defend my a wetland on my property from the activities of a neighbor who has undertaken excavation that improves the value of his property at the expense of mine. There are a couple of points I would like to correct that, it seems to me, substantially challenge the defense of the agencies that say this is beyond their jurisdiction.

My neighbor, Terry Givens, could not have contacted the Natural Resources Conservation Service "years ago" as NRCS representative Ron Daren claims since Givens has only owned the property since 1998.

The claim by Givens, as further stated by Darden, that he merely wished to clean an already existing drainage ditch is inaccurate. The ditch was completely excavated by Givens. A March 1999 letter from NRCS personnel to their state conservationist, Roger Hansen, says, "The major point of concern deals with a drainage ditch installed by landowner Terry Givens" and Givens "installed a drainage ditch through a cropland field ... ."

In an age when conservation of wetlands receives such a high priority at both state and national levels, I am both stunned and disappointed by the inability of state and federal agencies to help me protect and restore the 27 acres of wetland on my property.

R.B. WELTY

Whitewater, Mo.