Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Dear Mr. Garamendi. US Representative. (Letter). 22 September 2022 Dear Mr. Garamendi. US Representative. 22 September 2022. To start, I admire your work. I am now 81 and have lived on my farm on County Road 95, Davis, since 1978. I have raised vegetables and flowers for local farmers markets, catfish for restaurants, some of the first ground-raised chickens (for Chez Panisse Restaurant), turkeys and ducks, and conducted educational tours for school groups. I am the founder (along with my late wife, Prof. Lenora Timm) of the 2000 acre Quail Ridge Reserve, part of the Natural Reserve System of the UC system and, specifically UC Davis. I wrote the legislation for our State Grass (Stipa pulchra) used by 4th graders in their study of California history and California's state symbols. I have also lived and taught 5 years in Turkey (Robert College), 4 years in Lesotho, Africa (University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland) and conducted research for one year at the University in Uppsala, Sweden. I have always been concerned about the difficult weather problems of the islands off of Florida. Now it is Puerto Rico, in the limelight once again. The storms are constantly destroying the infrastructure of the island at great cost along with the human and animal loss of life. I would like to propose a program to improve this terrible situation: 1. Encourage willing people to be resettled (where and when to be decided) with compensation. 2. Those who remain, would start to reclaim and restore native habitat and be compensated for their work. The ultimate goal is to create an island with native plants and animals which would develop into ecotours, education, and research (the benefits of which would be socially shared). In addition, there would be areas for standard tourism, recreation and sports. This would create jobs as well. Structures would be built to withstand storms and flooding (at least for some period of time). Of course by 2100, much of the island may be submerged because of the ever-ominous climate change. This project would save millions of dollars and lives and would create a more stable state; if Puerto Rico follows the path of statehood: "Puerto Rico, the Environmental State" ! This might at first appear as an impossible task, but upon contemplation and some planning, it may be a winning choice. I urge you to consider this as a viable plan, realizing the implications of our changing planet and what will occur. The forced movement of human populations is inevitable and is already occurring in many parts of the word, including our own country. Most sincerely, Frank W Maurer, Jr. (Please read: NOMAD CENTURY How climate migration will reshape our world, by Gaia Vince. Frank Maurer 22 September 2022.