I was shocked to read that someone has dumped a pickup-size load of trash in the St. Nicholas Park parking lot on the shores of Albert Lea Lake. This type of blatant disregard for our lake and environment is unacceptable. We need to get away from the thinking that our lakes can be used as dump sites.  They cannot! What we have in our lakes are diamonds in the rough. They are natural recourses that we should take pride in, that adds to the quality of life we all enjoy.

There is a tremendous amount of work being we done to clean up our lakes and streams from our elected officials past and present, to groups like the Albert Lea Lakes Foundation, Shell Rock River Watershed District, Fountain Lakes Sportsman Club to name a few. Then there are the hard-working citizens who feel like I do that one of the best things we can do is to leave clean lakes and streams for future generations to enjoy.

Also, it is just plain wrong that anyone, like the member of the Albert Lea Lakes Foundation, should be afraid to use his name for fear of retribution. Who should be worried are the people who are dumping garbage in or near our lakes, streams and rural areas about having their names and pictures plastered on the front page of this newspaper!

Mike Lee

Albert Lea