Letters to the Editor, June 28
Issue regarding water flow
During a recent conversation with a resident of Hideaway Beach it came to my attention that there is a major issue regarding water flow in the Tigertail lagoon.
Briefly, the lagoon has become very shallow, particularly in an area approximately three-quarters of the way down from the mouth of the lagoon. In other words, the shallow region is just north of the area used as a recreational beach, adjacent to the county parking lot.
The net result is that the tidal flow of water is now insufficient to flush the lagoon and exchange the water by the beach. I understand the Hideaway community has obtained a proper engineering report, and the recommended solution is to perform some limited dredging work in the affected areas.
I would ask that you make Marco residents aware of the problem and ask that all residents raise this issue with our city and county leaders.
The lagoon serves as a tremendous recreational resource for residents and visitors, as well as a vital resource for wading and migratory birds. To ignore the issue will result in the lagoon becoming a stagnant pool, unfit for human use, and potentially far worse.
Andrew Tyler, Marco Island
Medical marijuana on Marco
I wanted to applaud the Marco Island City Council on being the first forward-thinking government leaders in Collier County to allow a medical cannabis treatment facility in their city.
I hope this compassionate decision inspires the county commissioners and the Naples City Council to rethink their backward and discriminatory policies that are assaults on patients' rights and medical freedom.
My son had a malignant brain tumor at age 11 with radiation to the head and spine that required chemotherapy. He had two strokes in 2017, caused from scar tissue in the brain breaking off. Afterward, he developed a seizure disorder. His neurologist was the physician who recommended he try medical cannabis.
Due to the effects of cannabis, my son has been seizure-free over two years, has reduced anti-seizure meds from four to one. Immediately, his ability to think clearly, speak and comprehend improved and continues to do so.
His overall sense of well-being is enhanced.
People who still oppose safe, local access to this life-saving medicine simply do not understand how so many patients are helped by it. I guarantee you that every single person who suffers from a life-threatening or debilitating disease would want to try anything that would help themselves or their children.
I don't know how people sleep at night if they would deny others that same right.
Congratulations to Marco Island for choosing compassion instead of discrimination and for choosing freedom over bureaucracy.
Lee Shook, East Naples
Catching pythons
Rightly so, there is a lot of local interest in pythons in the Everglades.
I lived on Guam in the late ’60s and no one knew of the Guam brown snake. Guam did not have any snakes. The snakes came to Guam via a plane or ship and had no predators. The snake found the perfect place to multiply. The last I heard is that there are now around two million.
Birds were an easy target, as they had never had to be aware of this danger. The snake first ate all the rails, which do not fly. The snake then moved to the trees, and again the birds were unaware. Birds on Guam were becoming extinct.
Needing a food source, the snake moved next to eating eggs and small animals. Even the monitor lizard was affected.
The jungle’s growth and reforestation depends on birds. The birds eat the seeds and drop them, causing new plants and trees to grow. Now even the growth of new trees and plants are down.
The snake is now starting to be controlled by filling mice with Tylenol and dropping them in the trees. The snake eats the mouse and dies. I urge everyone to read “And No Birds Sing,” a book on the brown snake and the problems it has caused.
I read in [the] paper that the python is now way north, into Kissimmee. It must be eradicated in the Everglades or our precious resource will be doomed.
David Smith, East Naples