As hurricane season approaches...

The health of easterly condominium populations near the St. Lucie River is assured with an adjacent wooded area left in its natural state in northern Stuart; the wooded area extends to the river proper, also assuring a mental grip for boaters and other waterway habituees. Since concrete-block houses have been built along both sides of the river in Martin County, access to or from the waterway is now restricted, such that the woodland has become especially vital.

A West Palm Beach television station broadcasts reminders that all trees should be trimmed and properties cleared as hurricane season approaches. The woodland left in its natural state contains dead brush that can be removed; with that aim the attention of the Scouts of America was noted last year. However, the Scouts have only cleared out areas near their family condos; although it should be a simple matter to schedule legal small-site troop-training clean-up within the post-hurricane region (Scout troops are on record throughout the state of Florida and beyond) the pile-ups have instead been deteriorating naturally.

So far so good, but the question remains -- what do the troops actually do beyond continuous training and badge awards, erection of structures and clearing of land so that their members can be employed within the U. S. Forest Service? Tiny tots with guns are not an unusual pheno-menon within the troops, and alarm over the behavior of hungry salamanders and the flight patterns of sparrows may have been translated into the bombing of Japan (giant salamander of Japan) and the United Kingdom (English sparrow) in the past, not to mention the continual shootings of other young people claimed to be "gangland" warfare within regional journalism.

Shifting sand covers and uncovers embedded rocks in the soil, while gardeners 'go haywire' over the movements of other species and the lack of trimming/harvests from the preserve. As a vital source of oxygen near river and coastal waters, the preserve remains the same.