Rich hit another nail on the head, along with what Kurt noted.
In any "real world", money is the only thing that talks. Rich mentioned the
Chamber of Commerce - they, of all folks, should be really concerned.
A good and recent case in point concerns the owl invasion in Minnesota this
winter that most of you know of. Just this week, Randy Frederickson posted a
partial result from a survey he took of folks who had traveled there to see
that stupendous and wonderful irruption. The point of his survey was to
highlight the impact that all those visitors had on the NE Minnesota
economy. At last count, with a good number of birders responding, he totaled
over $130,000 in revenue that never would have been spent if it weren't for
the owls being there. After all, what birder on earth would be crazy enough
to go out in -40F January weather unless there was something that rare to
see? Well now, because of that occurrence, I know a few of those crazies -
and they're right here in Virginia!
Personally, although I've only been here 3 years, I've made quite a number
of trips to the area and plan to tally money I've spent on those trips (Visa
receipts may come in handy for once) and send the results to those
concerned.
At any rate, my point right now is to encourage EVERYONE to write letters.
We've written 2 tonight and did what Ned suggested - Fax them for the sake
of timeliness. Time is always of the essence, so please DO IT SOON! We also
plan to write letters to the Governor, etc. - whatever it takes!
We're packing tonight for yet another trip to The Shore (palagic included).
We hope it's not our last.
Jon & BJ Little
Winchester
----- Original Message -----
From: <Zelig88@xxxxxxx>
To: <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 8:23 PM
Subject: [va-bird] CBBT Birding
As money talks and nobody walks...I would put $$$ right on top of the list
instead of at #4 as Ned suggests...anyone who lives down on the eastern
shore
and can rally businesses who benefit from birding $$$ to speak up (
Stingrays,
The Best Western) - that could be helpful - How about the Chamber of
Commerce
that sponsors the birding festival...my guess is that some of those folks
know
the commissioners personally...
Pull out the stoppers - let's have a whopper...Rich Rieger
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