Recent articles about Thorncrag failed to state the purpose of Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary is to provide habitat for wildlife.

The 1921 Charter of Stanton Bird Club reads as follows: “The object of this corporation shall be the increase and protection of wild birds, the stimulation of interest in bird life and the establishment of a model bird sanctuary and to foster and encourage research work in all branches of natural sciences and in general to inculcate the love of nature and science. seeking to preserve God’s Out of Doors and the wildlife therein for the present and future happiness of all our citizens, etc.”

You can’t preserve “God’s Out of Doors and the wildlife therein” by clearing a large area for a parking lot. The Stanton Bird Club cleared a space for 45 cars, when only space for seven is needed. Did they also need to cut one red oak tree – nearly 4 feet in diameter – which had been growing more than 100 years, and other black locusts, Norway spruce and Carolina hemlocks, which club members planted in the 1920’s, to provide habitat for birds?

At a time when local land trusts are purchasing land and taking conservation easements to forever protect land, why are the directors of Stanton Bird Club trying to raise funds to destroy a portion of the land which was dedicated as a bird sanctuary over 75 years ago?

Fred A. Huntress Jr., Poland Spring