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To the Editor: 

I can understand why City Council members insist on building playing fields in Eastshore State Park even if the parks will destroy irreplaceable habitat. 

After all, the red wing blackbirds and Canada geese aren't a voting bloc and they don't spend money in Berkeley. Suggestion: Current usage of the Cesar Chavez dog park doesn't warrant its acreage. Dog owners seem to prefer less sterile environs like the Berkeley Meadow. Why not designate some of the dog park acreage for playing fields? They'd be just as windy as the ones proposed for the North Basin area but the habitat would be preserved. If not overturned now, the Eastshore State Park plan to destroy the small area left of the natural world at the western edge of Berkeley will be an extremely myopic decision, not to say tragic for the myriad species who live there now.  

Maris Arnold, 

Berkeley