Greenies Protest Equal Treatment

Environmentalists fire back over treatment

During recent public hearings regarding a sensitive estuary and efforts to protect it, local "tree huggers" found themselves under siege.

Environmentalists spoke out Monday, Feb. 13 at the Charles County Planning Commission meeting in La Plata, complaining about the harsh treatment they were subjected to during recent public hearings concerning the Watershed Conservation District (WCD) being proposed in the western part of the county.

“I was very rowdily booed when I testified in favor of the proposed Watershed Conservation District, and I would like to speak for people for having the right to stand up and protect a resource,” Sierra Club representative Bonnie Bick told commission members. “I thought it was very inappropriate for some of the sort of rowdy atmosphere that was at the hearing. We never really had that before. I found it distasteful.”

Bick said a number of people who intended to speak in favor of the proposal left the hearing rather than be subjected to jeers from opponents of the measure.

What, no firebombs, like the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline? No shoving or pepper spray like the Berkeley protests?  This sounds like relatively mild treatment.