May 27, 2022 – A story in Texas Monthly magazine – “When a Quarry Closes, Can Its Damage Be Undone?” – is misleading from the headline on down. The initial implication, that a quarry exists to cause damage, is disingenuous at best. The person who wrote that story I am sure has no issue driving on the roads made from the stone a quarry provided. In asserting that quarries “leave behind a pockmarked landscape” that could not be further from the truth, in the long term. I can name many reclamation projects that have transformed local communities by creating housing developments, swimming and recreation areas, wildlife refuges, parks, retail developments, golf courses and more. In fact, he cites the Quarry Golf Course in Texas – a course I have played – as an example of local reclamation, and it is a good one. But then he claims, “Yet while it may appear safe for the Quarry Golf Course reclamation to declare victory, it’s still too early to assess whether this ecosystem can ever fully recover from a century of life as a quarry.” Well, no, it’s not going to be the same ecosystem. It’s now a golf course! It’s a different land use and rationally the area would not be expected to return to its original ecosystem before the quarry was there. These stories may titillate the average reader and fuel the fire for local NIMBY activists, but they don’t paint the whole picture, and that picture is the one everyone ought to be looking at.