Hope for Coastal Habitats People, Partnerships & Projects Making a Difference.

摘要

Publications like this one are usually depressing. Coastal ecosystems in America are in trouble. Wetlands continue to be filled. Underwater grass meadows continue to disappear. Oyster and clam beds continue to be polluted. Writing about them, then, invariably leads to long lists of statistics that catalog the losses. The accompanying downward trending charts reinforce the numbers. They all combine to leave readers numb and feeling hopeless. This isnt one of those kinds of publications. You will find plenty of bad news in the following pages. Its unavoidable, given the state of our coastal habitats. Our goal here, however, isnt to highlight what weve lost, but to celebrate what were winning back. Th is isnt a publication about destruction and despair; its more about restoration and rejuvenation. Youll find 12 stories on the following pages. They are mainly about ordinary people who were inspired to save a piece of our coasts disappearing natural heritage. Youll read about Harry Lester of Virginia, for instance. His memories of eating oysters from the Lynnhaven River drove him to start a movement that reclaimed some of the polluted river back for the oysters. Th en there are the Chums of Barker Creek. The small citizens group had formed to clean up the imperiled urban creek that flows into Puget Sound near Bremerton, Wash. Its work eventually led to the removal of a highway culvert that reopened miles of historic spawning grounds for salmon and trout. Youll also meet Phil Sander and Al Krampert. The two strangers were drawn together by their love of Americas fast-disappearing prairies. They ended up working together tirelessly for 40 years to save what is now the last untouched prairie on the shores of Lake Michigan, maybe the last one in the entire Midwest.