Letters to the Editor: Picking flowers, blocking traffic: Don’t do this, superbloom visitors

To the editor: As much as I love the beauty of the flowers seen in this latest superbloom, I feel the rapid influx of tourists to the desert around Lancaster and Palmdale presents problems.

Many times I’ve seen dozens, if not hundreds, of cars lining a very busy two-lane highway to park and walk through these fields. Often, people are crossing the highway, in areas where it is illegal for drivers to pass slower cars because of blind spots in the road cased by hills and turns.

Plus, now that the weather has warmed, rattlesnakes are coming out, and they love to warm themselves amid these flowering plants and where tourists are walking.

These fields, in particular, are California poppies, the state flower, and they are protected from picking, which I’ve seen many people doing.

For the safety of local commuters and the longevity of these beautiful flowers, please use common sense when visiting our home to see this wonderful phenomenon.

Christopher McCullah, Green Valley, Calif.

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To the editor: You need to practice what you preach.

While you’ve published articles that include proper flower-viewing etiquette, in the print edition you recently published a photo on the front page of the California section showing someone standing in the middle of a field of wildflowers.

Please don’t show photos of people trampling the flowers. Remind visitors to stay on the trails and leave the flowers for everyone else to enjoy.

Kathy Hanson, Huntington Beach