Many students and townspeople don't appreciate area's natural resources

To the Editor:

I am a sophomore at OU studying environmental and plant biology, and I have to say, I'm glad I came to school here. Not every small college town can offer tourist attractions that people come from out of state to visit. Of course, I'm not talking about Athens itself, but the area around it - the protected forests and parks lumped together under the name Hocking Hills. Admittedly, the Hocking Hills did not factor into my decision to come here, but it should have. I came here once before, for camping, and loved it. This region is so different from the Ohio I grew up in to the west. Now, I'm lucky. I can visit the parks any day I want. I can grab my camera and spend an evening enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery in the Midwest, if not beyond.

Obviously, this area is not a secret. People vacation here en masse every year. Yet, I'd never heard of it before a few years ago. I've never seen a commercial on TV for the park. This place is worth a few hours drive and a weekend, yet so many people, locals even, haven't experienced it.

The region has a gift: a natural resource that, unlike coal, is clean and won't run out. Many small businesses are already taking advantage of the tourist flow that provides both money and jobs. Surprisingly, the Hocking Hills visitor center has seen an increase in visitors since the economy slowed. Cheap tourism is recession proof. Taking that to heart, it's times like now, when budgets are being cut, that getting the word out there, and bringing people in, is all the more important. But don't forget, these are your parks too, so invite your family and have a picnic, enjoying one of this country's gems.

Tim Williams
South Green Drive
Athens

Editor's note: At the end of most academic quarters at Ohio University, one or two English composition classes assign their students to write letters to the editor, often to The Athens NEWS. In the past, we have published a sampling of these letters, as long as they are trying to make a point about an issue of interest or importance. However, we don't publish them if they're obviously paint-by-the-numbers efforts or thinly veiled business endorsements. The above letter is an example of the sort of class assignment letters that we will run.

We've taken some grief about running these things in the past, but I take perverse pleasure and delight in running them anyway. TS