I want to take a moment to thank Barry Reed for writing the Times News article entitled “Saving Habitat” featured in the October 10, 2026 Saturday Spotlight. The facts and observations included in Mr. Reed’s article resonated with me.

Reading the article brought to mind how soothing it was, when I was growing up in Lehigh Township, to hear the rhythmic “HOO-hoo-hoo-HOO” call of an owl before dawn or how commonplace it was for me to see a large herd of deer gathered across the field from my childhood home. Even a scary memory resurfaced of bats swooping around me as I hurriedly peddled my 5-speed Schwinn bike back home at dusk after a sandlot ball game ran late. My all-time favorite nature story happened in late-September of the early 2000s near the end of the Walnutport Canal trail in the Lehigh Gap. My friend and I were bike riding when we were suddenly surrounded by thousands and thousands of migrating monarch butterflies. The jaw-dropping spectacle of driving our bikes through a tunnel of butterflies that were flying all around us at ground level for hundreds of yards was both exhilarating and inspiring. I’ll never forget it.

I guess that’s why I cringe at the sight of warehouses displacing farmland and forested areas leveled for new developments in our region. I know that such changes impact our local habitats and the living creatures in them. Saving our region’s environmentally sensitive habitat for future generations is a priority that none of us should neglect. When our residents, community leaders and elected officials work together as Pennsylvanians, we all win and that is a very good thing.

Susan Seltzer

Danielsville