Let me get this straight. Currently the city of San Luis Obispo has more than 60 development projects under review or under construction. These will potentially add more than 3,000 new residential units—that’s 3,000 more homes folks!—and more than 500,000 square feet of commercial space. The environmental and social impacts that these new developments will have on the city will be very significant in many ways.

But according to “Path less traveled” (May 18), the current environmental concern centers on someone taking a hike or run on a couple of city trails after work hours in the winter. Really? Someone taking a walk in the woods at the wrong time should be restricted and heavily fined? What nonsense. Especially when it’s a few trails for a few hours. One would think that hikers and trail runners, especially the ones that build, maintain, and use the trails, would be the Sierra Club’s base. Times have changed.

Yosemite, Sequoia, and Yellowstone National Parks have more hikers and wild life than San Luis Obispo will ever have, and they have no restrictions at all on night hiking. Why should we?