Saturday, January 9, 2010

On Wilderness Conservation

Recently, a Chinese company announced they would be flattening the last remaining wild kumquat trees to make way for houses and other buildings. What has the IKF done about this? When the company first announced this plan the IKF offered them an unknown sum of money, estimated to be several thousand U. S. dollars to stop. The company responded by demanding several times more. The IKF refused and has made no other attempt since.
But don't count the "kumquat forest" out quite yet. A group has been formed just because of this event. They are called WKPA, or the Wild Kumquat Preservation Association. One of the informal leaders of this group, Melvin Vlotnork, told me,
"We are doing all we can." What that is, I don't know. But let's hope it works.

5 comments:

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  2. This Chinese connection. It has been gnawing at my curiosity for near a month and a half, or at least since late November.
    At that date, I was in pursuit of a coveted object ( a boy Barbie doll, if it must be told) and my sources took me to a former street of ill repute, the notorious Doyers Alley below Pell Street in the heart of New York's Cantonese stronghold. Doyers was infamous for the sharp bend at its mid point that creates the blind curve of an elbow. All the better for an ambush.
    At Numr 16, Mr. Tang had no boy Barbie doll, but a small bottle of a mysterious brown liquid. What is? I inquired? Loquat he said. Kumquat I asked?
    Silence.
    I have the bottle in my posession.

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  3. Loquats are not related to kumquats, although they taste somewhat similar. They are in the Rose family and are distantly related to apples. They are native to southern China. For more info, visit the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loquat.

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  4. Interesting mention of loquats near the end of this article about the Big Island from the travel section Friday. I wonder if the authors of this blog will branch out to turkey figs or pohas? I suspect there's a lot going on in those worlds too.

    http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/travel/escapes/15hawaii.html

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