I was understandably disappointed to learn that Mr. Dennis Chase and his colleagues and students had been forced to abandon a long-standing project to study and protect the box turtles of the Ridge Nature Area.
Mr. Chase, “a biologist with years of experience in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service … has been studying, tracking, and documenting [these] box turtles for several years. He has worked with student groups in Fayette County Schools on environmental study projects, and has provided nature programs for schools and scouting groups.” [The Citizen, 2012-10-03]
I was more disappointed when I learned that the Ridge Nature Area has become infested with armadillos, an invasive species that is seeking out and destroying turtle nests and feeding on the eggs.
If this infestation is not controlled, if the existing nests are not protected, it will not be long before there are no turtles in this nature area.
So what? Why should we care if there are any box turtles here — or anywhere in the world, for that matter?
It’s been said, and it seems reasonable, that the human race could exist on this planet with only three other species: phytoplankton in the sea to produce oxygen, brown rice to eat, and dung beetles. Not, I think, a pleasant existence.
Biodiversity is not about hugging trees or saving a particular fish that lives only in a short segment of a river. It’s not about invasive mussels that have taken root in Line Creek nor the concomitant loss of fish in that waterway. It is not about saving the Amazon Rain Forest. It is not about capturing animals and fish and putting them in zoos and aquaria on the pretenses of research and breeding. And it’s not about whaling on the pretense of research.
It’s been estimated that since the beginning of the Holocene, thousands of species have become extinct, many as a result of human action: hunting, the introduction of invasive species, the introduction of herding and agriculture.
Do the armadillos deserve to live? Certainly. But by arguing thus, we say that the mosquito deserves to live, the cockroach deserves to live, the termite deserves to live. So do kudzu and the boll weevil. Yet we spend millions of dollars each year trying to control or eradicate these pests.
In fact, it’s not too much of a hyperbole to carry this argument to say that the Zika virus, the Human Papilloma virus, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus , and the Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria, all deserve to live.
I herewith call upon the Fayetteville City Council and the Southern Conservation Trust (SCT) to withdraw the unnecessarily bureaucratic restrictions they levied on Mr. Chase and his colleagues, and invite him to continue his research and protection, as before. I call upon the citizens of this county to contact the Fayetteville City Council and the SCT and ask the same thing. Use these addresses: info@sctlandtrust.org and ejohnson@fayetteville-ga.gov.
Paul Lentz
Peachtree City, Ga.
