What happens to copy right when an editor throws a story in the trash? Of course, there'd be no point in providing a link to The Brunswick News anyway, because one has to subscribe to read anything worth while. In this case, in the story of the intrepid former Riverkeeper who dared to challenge what children are being taught in that eleemosynary enclave on the Georgia coast, known as Cannon's Point, there's only what a real early riser in Atlanta managed to grab a screen shot of and what The Brunswick News then scrapped.
In the interest of fairness, we'll just take a gander of how Mr. Michael Hall's story starts out:
Former Riverkeeper questions hunts at Cannon’s Point
Posted: Monday, October 20, 2014 12:00 am
By MICHAEL HALL The Brunswick News | 0 comments
A former Altamaha Riverkeeper who has taken on the role of environmental watchdog says the St. Simons Land Trust profited from two quota hunts last deer hunting season at Cannon’s Point Preserve and plans to continue the practice in the future.
The land trust’s executive director said Wednesday that his organization has not made a single penny off of the limited hunts and has no plans of doing so. He said the Department of Natural Resources hunts are necessary to control a growing herd of deer that has become overpopulated.
...
Keep in mind that deer hunting season starts next weekend. So, the story is timely in the extreme.
Ben Slade, executive director of the land trust, said Holland is off base about his assumption that his organization is profiting from the hunts.
“We didn’t change anything and it was run by volunteers with the DNR and our staff,” Slade said.
Slade said the deer population at Cannon’s Point is around 100 per square mile, a number that DNR has said is higher than what is recommended for a healthy herd.
It is probably good at this point to remember that the Department of Natural Resources is aptly names. Resources are, of course, things that can be used, and abused, over and over again. Resources are not about preservation. The object is to destroy just enough that the source isn't wiped out.
Participants in the second hunt were chosen from a lottery that included parents and their children as a learning experience. No deer were bagged during that hunt.
At both hunts, DNR volunteers and land trust staff were on hand to ensure things went as planned.
Would it be grossly unfair to remind you all of Shirley Jackson's
short story, "The Lottery"? Nobody's going to force you to read it.
In any case, Mr. Holland deserves the last word:
I think I read in an earlier article that there are only 80 deer per square mile on Cannon’s Point. If teaching children to kill anything they have greatly over stepped their boundary in the world of conservation and as a non profit. Mr. Slade said they did not make a single penny from these deer hunts. How does he know that, if the land trust is like most other charitable organizations and went into the general fund to remain there until spent. Did they keep count of all the volunteers used in this effort on Cannon’s Point? If they did, did they not benefit from that rather than hiring outsiders to do this work, of course they showed a profit!
I am and have been a friend of and to The Nature Conservancy for a lot of years and I find it very difficult to believe that they do not have misgivings about teaching children to kill wildlife.
In the future the land trust and Cannon’s Point will be involved in profit making schemes like tours by Sea Island Acquisitions and when they allow canoe/kayak outfitters to use the new dock if it gets permitted, are the canoe/kayak out fitters going to do this out of the kindness of their heart, I don’t think so. It is my understanding that some of these outfitters may already be advertising this facility.
Not only that but as of lately I am hearing rumbles of the new canoe/kayak dock not being fitted for disabled persons that still can canoe or kayak with the proper facilities. Come on Land Trust, let’s be fair to all our citizens, why isn’t this dock suitable for folks that do not have use of 100% of their body. And no, I do not like what is about to take place on Cannon’s Point and given the gift of free speech I am expressing my right to use it. James Holland, Run down, retired old Riverkeeper®
P.S.
This article apparently was posted and then got pulled but we have a friend in Atlanta that gets up early, early and monitors the news.
Early or late, now with the internet we can catch them coming or going.