Preserving green space might foster Lyme disease

On Sunday, the Daily Freeman delivered a probing look at Lyme disease, prompted by the story of Saugerties resident Eric Rutulante, who blogs at LymeBites about his 20-year tussle with the illness's various nasty manifestations. One of the revelations in the article is that human efforts to conserve green spaces might actually be making Lyme disease more prevalent:

Ostfeld said research has led to the discovery that planning techniques adopted to help encourage open space may inadvertently be playing a significant role in the spread of Lyme and other tick-borne disease ... “Inadvertently, some of our development arrangements are bad for our health, at least with respect to Lyme disease,” he said.