On Mon, 23 Oct 1995, Stuart MacKay wrote:

> Normally people drive all over the beach - a situation I'm sure
> disturbs birds and damages invertebrate populations living in the sand.
> However people driving along the beach as soon as they saw the pegs
> would steer their cars up the beach and drive above the marker pegs
> along high tide line - there was no real reason to do so.

People are funny, but as you suggest, sometimes it is easier to "let them
choose without telling them what the choices are. I have found with my
son, that if he knows what "choice" I prefer, he will become stubborn and
argue for the other choice. However, if I don't express a preference, or
try to influence him overtly, he will often amiably choose what I prefer
himself. Perhaps Conservation and Ecology are like this, generally
people want a clean beautiful environment to live and grow in, but they
feel that they are being forced to choose between what they want to do,
and protecting something they can't see the value of (ie the
invertebrates and birds on the beach vs driving along the beach, which
you showed did have a compromise!). ;-} It seems too many people don't
know how to see both sides of an issue, and you must be able to do this
if you are going to find a compromise, the middle ground. Sorry for
going on, but this is a real prickly point with me.

Jan