Dear Editor:
A FEW OBSERVATIONS
Permit me to express my opinion about a few observations on this patriotic week of celebrations in Anguilla.
I applaud the Anguilla National Trust as a arbiter of our national heritage; but it is not a title just for bragging rights. I constantly see in this medium efforts at conserving sea turtles, tagging, releasing and policing the harvesting of these reptiles on our shores, a laudable effort. However, I also listen to radio announcements imploring folks not to plant trees on designated national heritage sites, which brings me to the reason for this writing.
Case in point, the East End pond site should also garner the same respect and intensity as the turtle project. After all, it is a living ecosystem with many more diverse organisms than those two or three species of sea turtles that are so assiduously looked after.
First of all, I remember attending the East End school and playing, even sitting in class, under manchineal trees where the canopies were so tall and thick that kids could actually hide from the teachers and other students. In fact, Teacher Vanterpool famously said to Malic: “Zacchaeus come down”. He was at least twelve feet up in the branches. Thought he was Nicodemus. Those trees also provided regulatory action with regard to rain, temperature and overall climate.
What I’m really trying to get at is the fact that this area had been devoid of those big trees, now going on 50 years, which were and replaced by a few mangrove plants and interspersed with coconut trees. Not the same regulatory control. The pond has also been practically paved over with clay and other non-biodegradable junk totally unsuited for supporting the diverse life in that area.
The pond also serves as a catchment for water, run off from the surrounding area. Let’s think about it: if you take a bowl and fill it with mud how much water can you reasonably expect it to hold? Let’s not get into a physics debate, but if we look at the area right now during the dry season and see that the wading birds are gone, and after years of filling the catchment with dirt, what do we expect?
When the storms bring heavy rain and the roads are cut off because of flooding we are alarmed and saddened. But it cannot hold any more water since it is being displaced by the mud. We all heard the phrase “once a pond always a pond”. Let’s respect what nature has intended for this area and clean it out so that it can collect the runoff and protect the surrounding area – at the same time providing year round conditions for the avian life and mud dwelling fauna so vital to their existence.
When the pond is covered over, the animal life disappears. Example Island Harbour. Let’s not allow the one in East End to go the same way.
Im saying to the National Trust, be more proactive in this regard.
Patterson Hunte
