Letters

Future Generations Need Mt. Kisco’s Leadership to Protect Environment

We are part of The Trust Project

We are the Green Team and we are writing on behalf of the Fox Lane High School student body, which includes hundreds of students from Mount Kisco. Many of us are so fortunate to have lived all our lives in Mount Kisco. We love it here and we will always call it home.

We are writing to appeal to Mayor Gina Picinich, personally with sincere and heartfelt concern, for the 500 trees and irreplaceable habitat that village leaders are soon deciding whether to keep or to destroy to make way for a solar farm next to beautiful Leonard Park and the Marsh Sanctuary.

We understand it is an opportunity to get a little more tax revenue for the village. But it is these kinds of decisions, little by little, year by year, that have brought the world to the brink of ecological collapse because of climate change and mass extinction.

As young people – the next generation – we now have to try to repair the damage that has been done. Protecting what is left of trees and forests is the first step and the most important thing we can do for the planet and people everywhere.

We are so fortunate to live in a privileged community in the United States. Surely here, more than anywhere, we can have the vision and imagination to do the right thing for the planet and for future generations.

We are determined to speak up for the planet and for future generations who normally have no voice.

The decision village leaders make regarding the solar business will be your legacy. We have attended and spoken at several of the public hearings on this proposal and we have heard many residents and scientists voice their concerns. The company has presented false information and no independent scientific data has been prepared to support the application. Many of us are young scientists and we can tell the difference between real science and science-for-hire. We are suspicious about what is going on.

Many of us know and admire Mayor Picinich as a leader and as a mother of one of our friends where we all go to school. We are counting on her to be the green leader she promised to be when our parents elected you. We look forward, ourselves, to voting and campaigning in future elections.

We have no choice but to hold the mayor and village leadership accountable if they destroy this important area of precious trees and habitat that sits in the middle of a beautiful landscape.

We are asking for a different way forward. Work with our neighbors to protect the site, build more trails, connect it to wonderful Leonard Park and the surrounding forests and open spaces that we all love and cherish.

We have heard that there could be ways to buy the property and protect it forever. We love that idea and want to help. But we need the mayor’s help and leadership to help make this easier.

Let’s make Mount Kisco more green, healthy and beautiful together!

Riley Hester, Jasper Sizer, John Czernyk, Arlie Bremmer, Daniel Mazlish, Sydney Signacio, Helen Crummy, Sophie Kothari, Harrison Mazlish, Jasmine Sizer, Jacob Fields, Rachel Akinla, Margaret Malec, Matthew Krasnow, Colette Brand, Michael Toole, Kyle Vogel
Fox Lane High School Green Team

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