Debate Over Ravine Development

Parents in a southern Connecticut suburb are debating over a town-owned wooded area behind their children?EUR??,,????'???s elementary school, reports Greenwich Time. Some parents say the ravine behind New Lebanon School should be developed to provide much-needed sports fields. Matthew Popp, a parent and landscape architect with Environmental Land Solutions, had initially agreed with this idea. He developed plans for the proposed field last winter, in hopes to have them placed on the town?EUR??,,????'???s 10-year capital improvement plan. But a stroll through the wooded area with his son changed his mind. ?EUR??,,????'??There are mature red oaks, silver maples, American beech, basswoods, as well as rock outcrops, salamanders and, I think, the one deer in Byram lives back there,?EUR??,,????'?? he told Time. Popp now thinks the area would be useful for science lessons, but many parents are still pushing the need for the fields. The plans will be reviewed by the city before any decision is made.