Opinion by Roger Pariseau, Photos by Alan Sanders

Someone is digging a ditch in the sandbar between Ormond Beach's lagoon and the ocean.

This apparent attempt to drain the lagoon has spurred the Sierra Club to offer a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. Other ecological groups may soon be joining in, according to Club activist, Alan Sanders.

A short distance farther north, the wetlands are dry due to some (the same?) persons having dammed the natural water flow into and through this area.

There is no excuse for all this.

Unfortunately there are too many folks who feel they would benefit if only all the "greenies" would just go away.

These include local industry, the off-roaders, and, perhaps, even the beach runners.

I recently took a hike down the railroad spur that runs from Hueneme Road to the dunes. My first surprise was that the ancient, rotting and rusting out flatcars that long have been sitting on these tracks just south of McWane Blvd. were gone.

My second surprise came from the hundreds of birds I flushed from the scrub lining those tracks. One of these, a black-capped heron, flew ever-tightening, ever-noisier circles around my head until I got far enough away from its nest in that scrub.