Welcome
to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton--our history,
our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools--in short, EVERYTHING
CROTON.
A FEBRUARY 2014 GAZETTE LETTER FROM LINDA CONTE, RE-PRINTED HERE WITH PERMISSION. An index of related articles at Everything Croton, will appear at the end. As with all such postings, this is closed to ALL comments, pro or con.
To the editor:
I have been robbed -
robbed of my feeling and experience of the Teatown area as a peaceful,
beautiful, quiet place where nature and people lived together in peace. A
location eagerly sought, containing old stone walls, huge trees and lots of
good memories - the whole Teatown area has been robbed.
One week ago, in the
late afternoon, near the red house on the corner of Spring Valley and Blinn
Roads, a lone deer, beautiful between the trees, posed in the woods.
On the way down Blinn
Road toward Ossining, at about 6 p.m. that night, we were reminded again of how
precious and poignant the area is, when we followed, slowly and at a distance,
three young deer, beautiful, majestic and vulnerable, down the road, and
watched how difficult it was for them to find a place to get off the road, a
place where they could navigate the deep snow and icy conditions, to get into
the woods, supposedly to safety.
Shortly after we
arrived home at about 9 p.m. that night everything changed.
On that night, thanks
to Teatown "Nature Preserve", there was secrecy, trucks plowing
through Teatown trails, and people in camouflage uniforms and carrying rifles.
Deer, baited during this difficult time to find food, wandering into
familiar land which recently had boasted "deer snacks", pristine
areas familiar to the deer as resting places, suddenly turned into deer-killing
fields.
The police were
called.
Later, a Teatown Lake
Reservation administrator was out in the road taking pictures of the cars
passing in the street and threatening local neighbors, Teatown members and
supporters.
We don't know how
many deer lost their life that night. (The shooters wouldn't talk.)
We don't know how many young deer, lost and orphaned in the last
week, were suddenly alone during the recent monumental storm and difficult
weather.
We don't know how
much blood and gore was being covered by the pure white recent snowfalls.
But we will NEVER
FORGET!
