Sir, - The beautiful Glen of the Downs in Co Wicklow is to lose over 2,000 of its magnificent deciduous trees to the N11 as it is transformed into a four-lane motorway running from Belfast to Rosslare, to be called "Euro Route 1". All the trees on the valley floor are numbered for destruction, marked according to species. The woodland is rich in many varieties of broad-leaf trees, some as old as 250 years (young only for an oak).
On the east side of the N11 flows a small brook and the air there is thick with the smell of wild garlic. Across the road - and the roar of the endless traffic - can be found glades of towering beech trees, carpeted by a se of bluebells. Someone has put nesting boxes on the trees for the countless birds that live here.
I visited the Glen of the Downs last week. Everything was soaked by the torrential downpours of the bank holiday. I noticed a spider spin its wondrous web, and a moth chrysalis ready to metamorphose. Wooden stakes marked the edge of this proposed road, ripping a line through the place, and the trees in its path. My heart was saddened by the impending destruction.
As I left the small picnic area, I was to find the final irony of my visit. A small sign in a thicket of nettles and wild flowers by the side of the road reads: "Wildlife Act 1976. National Nature Reserve. Please do not disturb the animals or plants in this area. The Wildlife Services."
The Glen of the Downs is a beautiful, precious and environmentally valuable part of the Irish landscape, home to rare and endangered species of bird, animal, insect and plant life. I ask the powers that be - the Government and Wicklow County Council - please do not disturb the animals and plants in this area. You have been warned! - Yours, etc.,
Gavin Harte,
Grantham Street, Dublin 8.