Letters to the Editor

Dear editor, I was about to inquire as to whether the Village of Spring Green has any sort of environmental plan to deal with climate change when I read that we were getting some of our funky little alleys paved. Every bit of data (Department of Natural Resources [DNR], Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], the University of Wisconsin) suggests our towns and villages have to become more resilient to extreme temperatures and weather events. As the climates changes, one thing we don’t need is more asphalt. Or fewer trees, for that matter. When temperatures here get as high as they were in Oregon and the asphalt melts and it is too hot for kids to walk barefoot on the sidewalks and the dogs come away with blistered feet, I think we might prefer a gravelly, grassy alleyway. When we can’t remember the last gradual soaking rain and how overflowing storm drains rush torrents of our water down to the Gulf of Mexico which won’t need it because it is already happily lapping at the outskirts of New Orleans. Villages across the globe are making themselves climate-change resilient by requiring water-permeable driveways, a large percentage of soft landscaping per lot, and decreasing concreting and paving horizontal surfaces. They are giving tax breaks or incentives for residents to use rain-water tanks and grey-water on lawns.  They are planting trees on a rush schedule, making sure there will be mature trees available to replace the dead or dying ones. Instead, the village seems to be at war with the trees despite data showing that trees can make a huge difference in how hot our streets and homes will getaiest, and wealthiest residential areas are also the greenest. So why are we getting more tar and making ourselves more unfit for the future?  https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/climatechange/impacts https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/doc... https://www.americanforests.org/our-work/urban-forestry/ Paula Schiller Spring Green