[at-l] silent spring

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

> This talk of Silent Spring set me to thinking about a speech at a college
> graduation ceremony recently. The speaker was a prominent local developer,
> and by way of breaking the ice told what was supposed to be a
> funny. He said
> "An ecological activist is someone who already lives in a house on the
> beach".

My parents-in-law have just built a new beach house on Navarre Beach, FL.
They have had a beach house on that beach for a number of years.  There is
another statement that is truer than the quote above, and that is, "When you
live in a house on the beach, you HAVE to be an ecological activist."

When hurricane Opal rolled over Santa Rosa Island, it almost completely
destroyed the dunes and the ecosystem of the beach.  I believe that this
beach is actually part of the FT, but I might be mistaken.  Without human
intervention, the experts said that the island would recover on its own - in
about seven hundred years.  The residents suffered massive losses, and
insurance doens't cover everything.  After many years of begging the
government to help them restore the island, the government put up a long
sand berm, put up a few sand fences, and a couple of signs.  "Stay off the
dunes."  Nothing else would be done.  The residents again bit the bullet and
began restoring the island on their own.  We have spent a lot of time
replanting habitat, and lots of time cleaning up the beach - including the
public access areas.

Shane