I spent a week at Hato Pi?ero in 2001, and it was a paradise for
birding, a very well-run ranch with abundant natural habitat and
terrific wildlife and a constant stream of ecotourists. They offered
tours of the ranch by road and by boat, and the birds just around the
living quarters included curassows, Sunbitterns, potoos, and Scarlet
Macaws. You just about had to push the caimans and capybaras out of
the way to get to the wetlands.

This is a real tragedy for the Venezuelan environment, and it does
represent the extreme viewpoint of humans vs. wildlife and nature.
The same sorts of things will happen de facto all over the world as
the human population grows and grows and grows and grows. For a far
worse example, read about Zimbabwe. I also have visited the Lower Rio
Grande Valley recently, and there both people and the environment are
being given short shrift. It's not only leaders such as Chavez and
Mugabe who can bring down their own countries. Sorry for a political
viewpoint, but politics are so important to birds!
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net

On Jan 13, 2009, at 12:03 PM, tweeters-
request at mailman2.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:13:06 -0800
> From: jbroadus at seanet.com
> Subject: [Tweeters] Hato Pinero article in English
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>
> I have no desire to infuse any more political discussion into
> Tweeters, but I have to agree with Scott that the development
> of this wetland will be a great loss, not only to birders but to
> wildlife. Here is a somewhat easier to read translation of the El
> Universal article that was published yesterday.
>
> http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/01/12/en_eco_esp_hato-
> pinero-to-becom_12A2190169.shtml
> Jerry Broadus
> PLS 17660





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