Well, Gary, you have pretty much made my point for me. "Nothing much happened until these projects were undertaken." Meaning that before those projects were undertaken, no overdevelopment was underway, no rampant, unchecked growth, no overcrowding, no overpaving, no serious strain on the aquifer and no real threat to the creatures who were here before us. I agree that's true. And I wish the rush to develop Florida had been handled in such a way that those conditions were still prevalent in many more areas of the state. In my opinion, there are WAY too many people jammed into Florida today, and what has made that possible is the complete lack of foresight and planning. I don't really want to get "political" per se, either, and I agree that at this point we can't turn the clock back and undo very many of the things that were done in well-meaning but ill-advised this planet refforts to grow, grow, grow. But for me, Life on earth really ISN'T "all about people." I believe we are supposed to fit INTO the grand scheme of things on the planet, rather than tromp roughshod over it all, with no regard for other living creatures and their habitats. In other words, the more I learn about humans, the more I like animals. ;o) But truthfully, I'm willing to compromise. I know we are here to stay. I just feel we should each do our part, as best we can, to at LEAST not make things worse. And at best, to undo some of the disasterous money-making, land-grabbing, swamp-draining, canal-digging mistakes of the past. Some of those mistakes were made due to the expansionist ideas at that time in history, and some were made out of sheer greed and total disregard for anything or anyONE coming later. It's incumbent upon US today to try to decide which of these problems can be addressed and possibly corrected, and which we just have to learn to live with. We have to pick our battles wisely and try to do a better job of planning for future generations of both people and wildlife. Again, these are just my own personal thoughts on the matter, and not meant to start any kind of argument. But in my book, these three things are true: ecology is not a bad word, extremism on either side of the issue is counter productuve, and there should be plenty of middle ground to be explored when dealing with these issues. Marcia

No spamming allowed on this forum

Exotic Birds Index Here you find, links to 75+ Exotic Birds and Pictures Videos, links to Bird News, Rainforest Facts and Rainforest Pictures, Global Warming, Protect the World's Forests and more . You cane leave a comment on each link please do so. Here is a link that might be useful: Exotic Birds Index

Thanks ever so, Ned! I kept thinking it must be some kind of starling. It was so steenkin' hot that day, we just had to get out of there. We didn't even finish the zoo tour. We're thinking Novmeber or December might be a good time to try again. And next time, I'll be sure to check the guides. ICA, Sophie ^i^