Dear Sir: Village of Sugarloaf (T.O. Chester, Orange County) environmental gadfly Jay Westervelt has asked me to contact you, so that I might attest to his competence as an evaluator of wildlife habitat. In my capacity as a Fish & Wildlife Technician with the NYSDEC Endangered Species Unit (Bureau of Wildlife), I have dealt with Mr. Westervelt periodically over the past decade or so, and in that time I have been in his company on a number of occasions in the course of habitat evaluations in the Sugarloaf area. It is my opinion that Mr. Westervelt is a competent assessor of habitat suitability for such species as bog turtle and northern cricket frog -- in fact he is more able in that regard than most environmental consultants I have dealt with over that same time frame. Sincerely, Michael Kallaji