1. science
2. ecology

A8
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
|
Cape Cod Times | capecodtimes.com
IDEAS&OPINION
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The Cape and Islands’ Sunday
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Peter Meyer, President and Publisher
Paul Pronovost, Executive Editor
Linda Corcoran, Managing Editor
William Mills, Editorial Page Editor
Anne Brennan, Digital Editor
Main office: 319 Main St., Hyannis, MA 02601
Email: [email protected]
EDITORIAL
Confronting
an epidemic
Working group must propose
bold solutions to opiate crisis
I
t’s a distinction that our local chambers of commerce
will not trumpet from the rooftops: All three Cape
and Islands counties exceed the state average for the
percentages of their population being prescribed opioids.
Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties rank among
the top five in the state.
In Dukes County, 14.7 percent of the population receive opioid prescriptions. In Barnstable County,
it’s 14.3 percent of the population. And on Nantucket,
13.7 percent of the residents are being prescribed
opioids.
Statewide, 11.1 percent of the population is getting
opioids by prescription. Opioids include painkillers like
Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet.
Why is this a problem? Because the number of fatal
opioid overdoses increased by 90 percent in Massachusetts from 2000 to 2012. And the pace continues to pick
up. In 2013, there were 983 projected unintentional
overdose deaths in Massachusetts, representing a 47
percent increase over the 668 in 2012.
Over one weekend in December, while Massachusetts
residents spent long hours and millions of dollars finding
just the right Christmas gift for that special someone, 16
people died across the state of drug overdoses.
To State Police Lt. Col. Frank Matthews, every one of
them was a special someone. “There’s this whole culture that they’re just junkies, but you won’t ever hear us
saying that,” said Matthews.
According to Matthews, who tracks the state’s overdose data, 114 Massachusetts residents died of suspected
overdoses in December 2014, eclipsing the 60 in November. Their average age was 46.
Remember how
in
October the state
“Too much time has
mobilized
when it
passed, too many
was simply suspected
lives have passed on that a man at a Brainfor Massachusetts
tree clinic had Ebola?
to continue
Imagine if in December,
pressing forward
114 mothers, fathers,
grandparents, students,
with the same
teachers, firefighters,
old bureaucratic
nurses and electricians
failures.”
died of Ebola instead
of an overdose. Imagine how the state and all of its
residents, as well as the world’s preeminent health care
facilities, would muster the resources necessary to end
the budding epidemic. Instead, 114 lives passed nearly
unnoticed.
That’s why we are glad Gov. Charlie Baker has recognized this epidemic for what it is and last week created
a special 16-member working group to address the
addiction crisis. The group includes experts in prevention, intervention, treatment, recovery support and law
enforcement.
The working group will be led by Health and Human
Services Secretary Marylou Sudders and Attorney
General Maura Healey, and include people working in
government, law enforcement and addiction treatment,
including Raymond Tamasi, CEO of Gosnold on Cape
Cod, a substance abuse organization.
The group should also pool the experience of people
like Cheryl Bartlett, the former state public health
commissioner who is now the executive director of the
Cape Cod Regional Substance Abuse Prevention Initiative; Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey,
who’s working to educate pharmacists about doctor
shopping; addiction psychiatrist Jennifer Michaels,
whose treatment approach in western Massachusetts is
unparalleled; the commowealth’s sheriffs, whose available infrastructure could double the number of the state’s
long-term treatment beds in a few months; and the Massachusetts Hospital Association and Medical Association,
whose coordination and commitment to instituting
proper opioid prescriptions protocols are essential.
State police have led the way in data collection and are
investigating ways to prevent the illegal drugs from entering the state. Legislators must get on board with funding
prevention and treatment needs. No one has been more
committed to solving this problem than state Rep. Randy
Hunt, R-Sandwich, and U.S. Reps. William Keating and
Stephen Lynch, both Democrats.
Too much time has passed, too many lives have passed
on for Massachusetts to continue pressing forward with
the same old bureaucratic failures. We can’t fail another
generation. For the thousands of Massachusetts families
who have lost or are now fighting to save their special
someones, we already have.
HOW TO SUBMIT GUEST COLUMNS
Guest columns of no more than 600 words on timely,
Cape-related topics may be emailed to William Mills at
[email protected]. Include name, address and
phone number for verification.
LETTERS
Nonwhites can refuse
to be held back
I write in response to the
Feb. 20 My View by Alan
Young, “Consider the silver
spoon, the white skin.”
Mr. Young stated many valid
points in his piece but left out
one very big thing, I feel. Initially, to vote in this country
not only did you need to be a
white male, you also needed
to be a landowner. If you
were a white male but owned
no land, even you could not
vote. I do love it when many of
us, me included, forget unsavory aspects regarding the
beginning of our country.
I also must add that having
been a social worker for many,
many years, I have encountered many down-and-out
people of all races, ethnicities,
genders and so on. To me it is
how one perceives the world.
Jesse Jackson said it the best
in my opinion when he stated,
”I may have been born in the
ghetto, but the ghetto was
not born in me.” I have met
many nonwhites who refuse
to be held back. I applaud this
behavior fully.
Jim DesRosiers
North Eastham
Raise our voices
against Pilgrim plant
With your recent poll
asking, “Should the Pilgrim
Nuclear Power Station be
shut down?” it was revealed
that the Nuclear Energy
Institute, one of the largest
lobbying groups in D.C., with
worldwide membership, put
all members on notice that
Pilgrim is in need of support.
In an email, it asked those
members to take part in the
poll. That one, along with
this week’s poll, said that
the majority think it should
remain operational.
How can we, as citizens
who have lived through the
shutdowns, the equipment
failures, especially the focus
on its shortcomings during
the latest severe blizzards,
believe that those whose
concerns and awareness have
been heightened by countrywide coverage of the events
actually think it should continue operation?
Now we, more than ever
before, need to make our
voices heard and speak out
when we hear the oft-repeated
quote that Entergy’s first
priority is safety. It is actually
among the top six worstperforming U.S. nuclear
power plants, and the NRC
plans to maintain additional
oversight based on an inspection performed there last fall,
when Entergy failed to meet
mandated changes in operation and repair.
Janet Azarovitz
West Falmouth
Road rage plus guns
equals a deadly result
What could the Las Vegas
mother of four been thinking
when, following a road rage
incident, she and her armed
son drove back in pursuit of
the other driver — who, it
turned out, also was armed?
What in the world was
she thinking? Tragically, the
other driver shot her dead, so
we’ll never know her reason
for giving chase, only the
result — yet another family
shattered to pieces in a barrage of bullets.
Patricia Sherlock
West Barnstable
Seek justice in case
of toddler’s death
In response to your Feb. 22
editorial, “Lucas’ lessons,” if
ever I agreed with an editorial it’s this one.
Poor little guy — he never
had much of a chance in his
short life.
I hope, as you expressed,
that justice will be brought
to all those responsible for
Lucas’ death.
Joanne Lemay
Mashpee
MY VIEW
Why we must protect and restore our wetlands
By Ed DeWitt
T
he Association to
Preserve Cape Cod
commends you for
your recent editorial “Are
wetlands running dry?” The
editorial was fittingly published on Valentine’s Day.
There is nothing that invokes
love of place more than Cape
Cod. While people disagree
on the best expression of love
for this unique peninsula, the
sea, sand, light and wildlife
all make our chosen home a
unique part of our hearts.
Wetlands play a critical
role in making Cape Cod the
place we cherish. However,
your overlooked an important
distinction in wetland restoration. There is a difference
between wetland restoration
undertaken to restore ecological
values and ecosystem services,
and wetland replacement by
developers who are allowed
to alter the original wetland
while promising to replace it
elsewhere. True wetland restoration provides real benefits in
terms of restored habitat for
wildlife, fish and shellfish, and in
ecological services such as flood
storage, storm surge abatement
and pollution filtering. Wetland restoration is an accepted
method of “repairing” places
that were once wetlands but,
through past human interference, have been restricted,
filled or otherwise altered. In
contrast, wetland replacement
(also known as wetland replication or wetland mitigation)
that is allowed to happen under
our current system of wetland
permitting results in damage or
loss of wetlands.
You correctly identified the
latter as one of the culprits in
On Cape Cod, more than 38 percent of our salt marshes have
been lost to dredging, filling, ditching and other humanrelated activities. Dikes and undersize culverts have restricted
the natural tidal flow of seawater, causing formerly healthy
salt marshes to become clogged with invasive vegetation and
to atrophy.
our loss of wetlands. The policies
and regulations that allow such
wetland loss to continue should
be eliminated. Wetland restoration, on the other hand, is
needed more than ever.
One type of wetland under
siege, and critical to Cape Cod’s
coastal resilience, is the salt
marsh. This past month’s
blizzards and storms once
again provided Cape Codders
an important reminder of the
value of salt marshes as a key
part of our coastal defenses.
Storm surges and floodwaters
were absorbed and soaked up
by these marshes. These latest
storms, Hurricane Sandy
and other powerful Atlantic
storms have taught us that
sand dunes and salt marshes
working in harmony reduce
storm damage by as much as
90 percent. They are ideal
pieces of natural infrastructure
to prevent flooding, and outperform anything people can
build for coastal protection.
With changes in climate patterns and rising sea levels, this
wetland zone becomes even
more critical to our survival.
As communities demand
more be done to protect
coastal properties from the
ravages of Mother Nature, we
sadly and ironically continue to destroy and alter
salt marshes at an alarming rate. Cape Cod’s salt
marshes continue to disappear
despite wetlands protections
described in your editorial.
The latest culprit is sea level
rise. On Cape Cod, more than
38 percent of our salt marshes
have been lost to dredging,
filling, ditching and other
human-related activities.
Dikes and undersize culverts
have restricted the natural
tidal flow of seawater, causing
formerly healthy salt marshes
to become clogged with invasive vegetation and to atrophy.
More than 7,000 acres of salt
marsh have been destroyed.
In terms of flood storage
capacity that has been lost,
that amounts to 2.2 billion
gallons of seawater for every
foot in elevation.
Most Cape Codders agree
that salt marshes provide
incredible vistas. Besides being
beautiful, they act as food
banks for a host of birds and
other wildlife. Salt marshes
are critical for healthy and
abundant fish and shellfish.
It’s estimated that 75 percent of our commercially
important fish and shellfish
species depend on salt marsh
habitat at some point in their
life cycles, serving as nurseries
and a source of food.
Salt marshes can also
mitigate the rise in greenhouse
gases by storing more carbon
per acre than tropical rain forests. And they are among the
best natural water cleansing
filters, because they take up
and store pollutants. Restoring
tidally restricted salt marshes
can even be an important tool
in the portfolio of solutions for
improving water quality and
treating our wastewater.
Recognizing the importance
of healthy salt marshes, the
Association to Preserve Cape
Cod launched a salt marsh
restoration program in 2003.
Our objectives are to increase
awareness of salt marshes
and promote their stewardship; provide scientifically
sound data on salt marsh
health to our local, state
and federal partners; and
document the effectiveness of
tidal restoration in restoring
salt marshes. Although there
has been success with restoration projects, much more
needs to be done. The Cape
Cod and the Buzzards Bay
atlases of tidally restricted
salt marshes list more than
200 marshes with tidal
restrictions. We are actively
partnering with towns and
the Cape Cod Conservation
District to identify, fund
and commence the next
round of restoration projects.
We need to step up our
restoration efforts now.
Successes, such as recent
restoration projects in Barnstable, Brewster, Eastham,
Harwich, Sandwich and
elsewhere, point out the
value and cost effectiveness
of salt marsh restoration.
Projects like the Herring
River restoration in Wellfleet
and Truro are long overdue.
Such restoration projects will
not only restore healthy salt
marshes, but will also benefit the local economy and
increase coastal resiliency.
— Ed DeWitt is executive
director of the Association to
Preserve Cape Cod.