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Dear Sharon. Thanks for your letter. I'll try to answer most of your questions. We started building last summer on the property after trying to work out details with the county for nearly 18 months. We built the shell of the house this past summer and will finish it next summer then probably rent it until we return to the states. I'm afraid that there has been an impact on the plant and animal life on the property, but feel that with time we will be able to restore most of the damage that putting the
house where the county insisted has caused. The bigest problem is that much of the tree cover has been lost, and will take years to replace. In the meantime some of the shade-loving plants will be reduced in number, and the animals depending upon them also reduced. We will pick up other plants and animals, but there is no doubt that the character of the cleared area has been changed. In the rest of the land the damage has been slight, and little change has taken place. There is enough land in this area
that has not, nor can be developed that an extinction of any specied is likely. At this point the law makers are not very open. They have been mandated by high authority to develop regulations and enforce them. In time, I think that there will be a different attitude, and with different personnel there might be different solutions. I think, however, that it is going to be up to us to restore the land as closely as possible to it's original condition. Most of the neighbors are quite intersted in preser
ving the natural habitats of their land and all (without exception) in our area have done a great deal to keep the land as natural as possible and to minimize the impact upon the environment. No, the county was not intersted in buying us out. They cound not afford to. I guess my bottom-line feelings are that working cooperatively with state and county authorities - instead of an adversarial relationship would solve more problems in both the long term and short term and would generate more positive feeli
ngs about the importance of saving wetlands that is being accomplished now. I first heard about the Nitrogen Fixing Tree Association from an article in National Wildlife a few years ago. I thought it was so interesting and so important that I joined and have been a member for about 5 years.
I have the address at school and I'll send it to you in my next letter.
If you give me a mailing address of your school (or home) I'll mail you a copy of the article. The basic idea of the organization (and it's world-wide) is to promote research and planting of trees and will grow on poor soils, and will replace the nitrogen that has been lost through improper use of the land. Millions of trees have been planted, and the list of uses these nitrogen fixing species can be used for is astounding. Their headquaters is there in Hawaii. Guess I'll go. I'll write again soon.
I'll keep passing articles and things on to you as I find them. Let me know what your class is doing. I'm really intersted. Yours, George Blanks
