We live at the bottom of Snapdragon hill, one of those beautiful, quiet islands of wildlife in town, that made La Conner’s charm. It was covered in summer with wildflowers, people would come pick blackberries, deer liked to climb up the hill, there were rabbits and once I saw a family of raccoons feasting on berries. You could hike to the top. I once had a picnic there.

When I saw the contractors break and deface part of the hill or when they sprayed the hill across the street from us to kill the vegetation, I was horrified. They did, after having sprayed (!), try to throw some seeds up from t...