April 21, 2004 – The St. Croix Environmental Association is celebrating Earth Day — which is Thursday — with three days of activities at St. George Village Botanical Garden.
As with other Earth Day observances during April, the fair provides an opportunity for students to participate in activities that encourage the preservation of the Earth and its natural resources.
The St. George area has been designated a national historic district. It was the site of an Arawak village in 100-900 A.D. Under Danish rule, a sugar plantation was developed there in 1733. After the 1917 transfer of the Danish West Indies to the Unites States, the property was turned into a cattle farm.
Susan Curtis, program development specialist with the St. Croix East End Marine Park, said about a thousand St. Croix elementary and middle school students are expected to visit the fair. They'll take in exhibits, presentations and guided walking tours of the 16-acre property, which includes orchid, medicinal herb and cactus gardens.
Fair exhibitors include the University of the Virgin Islands, Coastal Zone Management program, V.I. Energy Office, Anti-Litter and Beautification Commission, Agriculture Department, Fish and Wildlife Division, V.I. Marine Advisory Service and the Water and Power Authority. Some exhibits are interactive, Curtis said.
On Wednesday, vans and school buses lined the St. George driveway while inside, in the Great Hall pavilion, more than 15 exhibitors fielded questions from eager students on field trips.
Laurie Christian, WAPA public relations specialist, said the youngsters' questions were well thought out and that she and other exhibitors were taken aback at the wealth of knowledge the students displayed. "Some of the questions make you stop and think — wow!" she said.
William Coles, the Planning and Natural Resources Department's chief environmental educator and endangered species coordinator, surprised some adults with what he had to say about conch shells. Airport inspectors can confiscate shells collected along the shore or even purchased in souvenir shops, he said, if they do not conform to regulations such as the territory's endangered species act.
To avoid seizure of their marine life collectibles, Coles said, travelers must get a permit from the Fish and Wildlife office and comply with its terms. "You can't take native species," he said, referring specifically to queen conch shells. "They are endangered even if you find them already harvested and left on the beach."
As students from Juanita Gardine Elementary School crowded around, he used a special tool to measure the sizes of various shells.
He explained that conch shells may be taken if they are at least 9 inches long with a lip thickness of three-fourths of an inch. And whelks, also called West Indian top snails, must be larger than two and seven sixteenths inches. No corals of any size may be taken, he added.
Coles also said that because of outbreaks of West Nile disease and rabies, new regulations will require permits from both the Agriculture Department and the Fish and Wildlife Division for all wildlife coming into the country. He said importers or owners and transportation agencies can be fined for failure to comply.
The Fish and Wildlife Division also monitors an endangered lizard whose habitat is on Protestant Cay, where Hotel on the Cay sits, he said.
Gardine teacher Claudia Matthews said she brings her classes to the Eco Fair every year and considers it a great teaching tool and learning environment. Wednesday's field trip was "the first visit to the Botanical Gardens for some of them," she said.
Olassee Davis of the UVI Cooperative Extension Service said after leading a class on a walking tour that programs such as the Eco Fair are both educational and fun.
He said that during the tour he had explained the origins of medicine and the medicinal plants of the Caribbean, as well as rope making and other utilization of natural resources. The students chuckled as he spoke of the use of the silk cotton tree for pillow filler and of royal palm fronds for roofing. "People were poor so they became very resourceful," he told them.
The students looked stunned when Davis told them that tamarind tree branch whips had been used for punishment in slavery times. "They used to beat the slaves sometimes 100 times and then place salt in their wounds," he said.
Davis said he will be leading 25 Education Complex students and their chaperones on a four-day Earth Day excursion to St. Thomas, St. John and the British Virgin Islands of Virgin Gorda, Sandy Cay, Green Cay and Jost Van Dyke.
"Our children must learn the importance of what nature means to our lives," Davis said. "Nature can do without us, but we can't do without nature. Rivers and streams are important to power generation in some parts of the world. The windmills provided electricity to the plantations."
On Wednesday, Curtis said, the fair also hosted groups from St. Croix Christian Academy, Manor School, Ricardo Richards Elementary School and AZ Academy. Fifth-and sixth-grade groups will visit on Thursday, and seventh-and eighth-grade groups on Friday, she said.
Mike Leavitt, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said in a message for this year's observances that Earth Day is a time to unite. "The environment knows no boundaries," he said. "We all breathe the same air, drink the same water. We all cause pollution, every one of us. And working together we can find the solutions and effect the changes needed to protect our planet."
U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson came up with the idea of Earth Day 1962. Reflecting back later, he said that "Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grass-roots level."
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