28.204434 N Latitude 

81.292376 W Longitude.

Why would a girl in Florida want to preserve the  Gavilan Plateau ? ​

Why would a boy living in Germany want to help her ?​

Glad you asked. She’s a photographer he’s and artist.  Laura and Elias were childhood friends.  They recently  met on the internet . They haven’t talked in thirty six years.​

     These two kids grew up in a town full of legends and stories. We spent endless hours in childhood  creating more stories based on legends.  Matawan Creek  where the famous ​

 shark attacks happened , monkey like creatures running loose in the woods , mystery ​kids at Summer camp ,  and haunted lakes where drownings happened.

Long before ​

“ JAWS “ “ET” “Meatballs” and “Friday the 13TH” we invented our own stories.​

     Laura : “The inspiration was the historic  town of Matawan New Jersey. We played in Marc Woods. Hiking winding paths through gullies , ravines , the creek which was once a major shipping harbor and building forts in the woods.  It was there we found our love for nature in so many forms.”​

     Elias : First thing that springs to mind is, that was back when people would hear the word "swamp" and equate that with, I don't know, something yucky.​

 Of course, that must have been an incredibly interesting little patch. What plants, what     ​

trees, what birds. Hmmm.  if I say "Katoof," what springs to your mind?​

     Elias : People regularly caught crabs , you know , with those crab traps by that bridge​

 over the little creek.  I mean that one that you would reach by taking the path through the woods , almost directly behind your back door.

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 Laura :  I ‘ve always adored blackbirds. They were so abundant in our gully.​

 blue jays were always  around . Quite territorially once they chased the neighbor’s ​Siamese cat all around the yard until the cat slinked home in shame.​

     Laura:  We spent so much time in the woods. The older boys helped us dig the ​stairs to our fort club and they helped us clear paths around the fort while the little​ girls collected lovely tokens from nature to adorn our fort , like nesting birds we ​relished nature.Our hearts were so full of God’s earth and all it’s great delights.​

     Laura: Oh my gosh, can you believe it ? We were just talking about crabs and​ there it was. Eli saw them on German television. New Jersey horseshoe crabs. ​

 What  a delightful coincidence.   ​

  Coincidences: we take them for granted. But they are not random .​

 Nature has an order and order in nature must be preserved. Just because ​

 it’s there , trees are blooming , birds are singing , fish are swimming , that does not ​mean that the order of nature is in tact. We have to explore , we have to be more​ interested in how nature is meant to be arranged. Building , depleting resources ,​cutting back  growth areas means destroying the infrastructure of the environment​ and  when nature’s order become interrupted too much , too often , then ​, critical habitats become endangered  habitats.  We have to take action now to ​preserve this beautiful Gavilan Plateau region , so coincidence can be engineered ​

 by nature, as, meant to be.​

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Eli : Playing hide-and-seek with so many trees and hedges in the neighborhood--child’s play, literally! So we kids took the game to a new level: If you were crouching down out in the open , say, on the lawn or a sidewalk, and the person playing it spotted you, you were not considered “found.” Some of us​

tried this on occasions  when we didn’t reach the safety of any​

particular  tree. Just crouch down! Someone finds you​

 crouching , oh , he must be hiding behind an IMAGINARY tree! ​

No one would be silly enough to just crouch down in the open​

And get caught. I’m thinking now, oh, we were somehow learning the language of the trees. Because just as trees speak no words, the “imaginary tree” exception rule to our hide-and-seek game was never written down, never discussed. Kids just played along with the ruse.​

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Laura    Yes. Imagine how the displaced wildlife feel. Birds perching out in the  ​

          open , where trees should be.    Small creatures without the gift of ​

          camouflage  open to predators because their habitat has become in critical       ​

          danger , meaning diminished.  Nowhere to run , nowhere to hide. When​

          the smaller creatures become easy prey , then what ? Do large predators​

          become satiated , lazy , dull , jaded ? What if that happened to the eagle ?​

           If they become lazy , dull , jaded , they become easy prey themselves and     ​

           they dwindle too.  This is not a game of hide and seek. They don’t have the             ​

           higher  education of humans.   We owe it to our planet as higher evolved              ​

           humans  to pay attention to critical habitats before these inhabitants​

          become endangered.​

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ELIAS : Here in Leipzig this weekend, some people from the Preserve Wildlife Society, , were talking about some blackbirds we were observing in the park, “ The male is using a piece of twig to tap the ground. The goal seems to be, make the earthworms think a mole is trampling along underground – the earthworms will come out of the ground for safety.”​

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Laura: We were so lucky to grow up in a historic town. ​

        The region was designed for preservation centuries ago.​

         It is so important that we do not take the inhabitants of ​

         critical habitats for granted.     ​

         We must pay attention and make others aware.​

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Preserving this Gavilan Plateau needs to be a goal of special concern , so children can grow up to tell delightful stories of their  memories of loving nature.​

Preservation must be a priority , so the Gavilan Plateau is not  “only” a memory , someday , but a reality that is still there for future generations to enjoy and continue preserving.​

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If any locals want to know why a girl so far away is interested in supporting the plateau it's because I am fortunate to live in Central Florida where we have no critical concerns about wildlife , except for turtles. This is Central Florida , the preferred vacation home of much wildlife and people too.

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