Why do you think the concept of the scapegoat was invented? If I
drain a bog
that is loaded with carnivorous plants and orchids with the intention
of putting
a strip mall in its place, it's far easier to blame the lack of these
rare plants on
"poachers." They come at night and dig up all the plants until
nothing is left.
Gee, well since they took them all, I guess it's okay to put up that
strip mall.
After all, it's not like I'm destroying habitat -- those poachers did
the evil deed!
Didn't see them? You're lucky! They're dangerous....

By the way, does anyone know who came up with the concept of the
strip mall?
It seems so totally an American obsession. As I have driven all over
the Gulf Coast
during the past three decades, I've seen one strip mall go up, then 5
to 10 years
later, it's empty and in a state of decay. Rather than rehabilitate
it, another
developer clears the piece of land on the other side of the highway
and puts up
another brand new one. I've seen at least four or five generations of
strip malls
go up, then falter, then be abandoned. The problem is that you can
never put the
first site back to its original condition -- you can't peel up the
asphalt and concrete
and find that all the original plants and animals are still underneath.

How many of you recall the vast tidal flats that were revealed during
a minus tide
on Sanibel? Or Marco Island? I remember walking for what seemed like
many miles
under the blistering sun, seeing all the trails left in the sand by
shark's eyes, whelks,
baby's ears, olives and so forth. Of the many hundreds of shells we
saw, we took
maybe a dozen or so; just the best specimens. Where are those flats
now? They
didn't disappear because of shelling, that's for sure!

Best regards,
Jim

On Dec 25, 2007, at 11:10 AM, Katherine Cordy wrote:

> Obviously the paving and building has ruined the shelling both in
> the Keys
> and Sanibel!   NOT the few shell collectors!
>
> BC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Conchologists List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Matt
> Blaine
> Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 9:20 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [CONCH-L] a lesson on collecting which may relate to shelling
>
> About 30 years ago we use to rent a small cottage in Dewey Beach,
> DE, USA
> which was about 90 meters from the Atlantic Ocean and about 32
> miles from my
> home. At home we had a large collection of native plants, orchids,
> and other
> plants in our gardens and green house. We would go home every
> couple of days
> to tend the gardens and check the mail.
> In the sand dune yard next to our rented beach cottage was a small
> colony of
> rare dune dwelling plants. I wanted to take one back to my gardens
> and plant
> it where we had a good chance of keeping it alive but I was torn by
> the
> moral dilema of taking such a rare plant (and violating the law)
> even though
> I would be preserving it. I decided not to take the plant (taking
> the high
> road,after all I was a teacher), but was totally mistaken. The next
> week we
> came back to the cottage only to find that the lot where the plants
> had
> existed for years had been bulldozed! Every plant was gone. The
> rolling dune
> leveled. In a few weeks it became an asphalt parking lot and a new
> condo.
> All of the plants were gone.
> We have also seen similar things happen in the Florida Keys. We use
> to dive
> around Key West in 1968 before the housing boom covered the keys
> with houses
> and canals. We saw the white silt from diging canals hanging in the
> water
> and eventually covering the animals, plants, and bottom later in
> the 70s.
>
> Matt
>
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