Asa Wright Nature Center

Seven years ago I went to Trinidad for the first time. It was a magical place and my eyes opened to the diversities of this wonderful place. It was an opportunity that my love of creating paintings featuring birds afforded me. The Don Eckelberry Award, through the Society of Animal Artists, provided me with travel and 10 days at the Asa Wright Nature Center. I had a great time and in many ways it changed my life. I was sad to read an article the other day about how a quarry is now inching it's way closer and closer to the Nature Center. While I have been to Trinidad and Tobago a few times since my first trip in 2005, I have not been to the nature center in a few years. I'm not sure what the ecological effects are and will be, but can not imagine that this is good. Don Eckelberry was a bird artist who was one of the people instrumental in creating the Asa Wright estate into a nature center. This is a struggle that is difficult as it pits economy with ecology, for my 2¢ I hope that Trinidad recognizes an ecological treasure can last far longer than a quarry—after the land is stripped there's really nothing left.