Virginia,

You are right on the money. Your generation will soon be in the driver's seat. And I'm happy to see you already have your heart in the right place!

Dear Virginia,

You might want to consider some things.

For example:

There are more White Tail Deer in North America today than there was when Columbus was given credit for "discovering" the place.

There are more trees in North America right now than there was at that time also.

There are more ducks now than ever before.

Virginia, the human population continues to increase, humans are as much part of nature as any of the other animals that are on the face of the earth. The human animal is rather ingenious and will continue to produce and consume, have families and "go fourth an multiply". It is part of nature and is quite natural and normal.

Since you live in Greensboro you may be interested in knowing that North Carolina is on track for the largest population increase over the next twenty years than any other state in the East.

I don't know the exact figure but something like only 15% of all the habitable land in the United States is occupied by humans. That would leave 85% unoccupied.

You as a growing and learning animal need to spend a little more time finding out what is really happening and pay a little less attention to what you see on TV and the books that you are made to read at school.

I wish you well in your life and rest assured that your children will have a full and fruitful life in the years to come. They will be able to enjoy nature as you obviously do.

Mac

I am sorry here. But where do you get the numbers that today we have more trees than back in the times of columbus. I really and I mean really find that hard to swallow.

What I do know there are many lakes and rivers today so polluted that some are consider dead or dangerous to fish from. And how many species of animals will no longer exist come tomorrow morning?? Because of us.

And with some of our mountains areas no longer exist due to mining the tops off. Have you seen the pictures of trees on Grandfather mountain from 20 to 30 years ago with the trees today.

Mac you are right we are one of the many creatures on this planet but we are the only one destroying it. Name another animal that is responsible for the environmental damage taking place on this planet.

If we are the caretakers of God's planet he needs to fire us.

Hayes, Don't remember the source but I'll try and find it again.

I forgot to leave out the part about the Wild Turkey population today is much, much larger than when Columbus came to the "New World" and also more than when the Pilgrims supposedly had them for the first Thanksgiving dinner.

But back to trees. You see Hayes the native population of North America did some neat things. That would be those girls and boys that are said, in the finer publications, to be the great stewards of their world.

Being the masters of exploiting their environment they knew, amongst a whole lot of other dirty tricks, knew that if you set a fire and burned off a forest, new growth would come up out of the ground. That new growth would bring Bambi's and bunny rabbits out to eat. They wouldn't have dark deep forests to hide in any more and they taste soooo...good! So they would start fires and get the hell out of Dodge for a year. Mind you the US Forest service didn't come along and dig fire brakes and fly air planes full of water over the fires and put them out. They would burn for days, weeks, months until a fortunate rain storm would come along or they just flat ran out of stuff to burn.

This was also a weapon that they used against their brave and loving neighbors. You didn't like the Joneses or the Hiawatha's that lived in the next valley? Just set a big fire up wind of them and leave. The guys you didn't like would leave also.

We don't burn off the forests any more. In fact when they catch on fire we do our damnedest to put the fires out.

Then came the pioneers. They moved into the Great Plains. Problem there was that the dang wind started blowing and there weren't any trees to stop it. Soooo.....being an animal that had some control over their environment, they planted trees.

If you drive much a little further South of here you will see huge tree plantations. More in Georgia and Florida than you see around here. People plant trees to exploit the environment and make a profit. Tree plantations have far, far more trees per acre than ever would grow in a natural forest.

That is just a start on why. And if you wish I'll tell you how they caught fish. Or killed whole creeks and rivers full of fish, would be a more correct way of saying it. Ahhh...the noble red man!

"I forgot to leave out the part about the Wild Turkey "

When you start forgetting to leave out stuff (what does that mean anyway?) the only Wild Turkey you're familiar with is the one from the bottle.

Mac
Just a some questions here.
Does your brain hurt when you have to lower your superior intelligence to us low lifes?

You suggested to the girl to get her nose out of TV and books does this mean she will either A)have to travel the country to get your wealth of knowledge B) will just get a private number with God like yours?

Or are you using Rush Limbaugh's "The Truth about
Native Americans"

But are you really suggesting that the indians matched our abilities to wipe out lakes and rivers with industrial pollution, and yes maybe we dont use fires we just let our air polution
kill off the trees. Oops sorry I am sure all the smoke from years of camp fires matched our current dumping in the air.

Since you seem to have personal contact with tree and animal counters from this time, as you said dont use tv or books, please tell me how many species of wildlife did the indians kill off and how many rivers and lakes were dead before we the white arrived? Since our record on this is rather well documented. Sorry again that would mean using books and documents.

I will go get my teddy bear and wash my thumb in full anticipation for your enlightment.

Virginia,

I'm sorry I didn't catch your excellent letter sooner. Please tell your mom to e-mail me by clicking on my name. I live on the Dan river in Eden. My property is on the river and abuts a tremendous expanse of undeveloped land. There is no hunting allowed on my 11 acres. She can set free what she wants here, there is a paradise of trees and foilage for all her animals. Thanks for writing.