Posted on 04/16/2005 11:05:13 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A tranquil beach fringed with nothing but tropical forests, cattle ranches and turquoise seas is at the center of a looming battle between environmentalists and developers who plan two resorts along one of Puerto Rico's least disturbed stretches of coastline.
Investors in the Marriott and Four Seasons resort projects chose the undeveloped swath near the eastern town of Fajardo for its striking beauty, a site seemingly so untouched that a film crew recently used the spot to re-enact Christopher Columbus' landfall in the Americas.
Mountains covered in lush rain forests rise in the distance, and pelicans dive for fish along a beach frequented by fishermen and surfers but not many others. It is also a prime nesting spot for endangered leatherback sea turtles.
"It's a unique place in Puerto Rico that we have to protect," environmental activist Luis Jorge Rivera-Herrera said. The 33-year-old is helping lead a campaign against the resorts and has been joined by groups including the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, Surfrider Foundation and the National Wildlife Federation.
The developers, who are awaiting government approval, say they have painstakingly planned the hotels, condominiums and golf courses to be in harmony with nature on this U.S. territory in the Caribbean.
"It's designed precisely to minimize the impact," said Carlos Fernandez Lugo, a lawyer for investors in the Four Seasons Resort San Miguel, a $579 million project.
The resort is to have 250 rooms and be built along with up to 1,025 homes — and will include its own environmental research center, Fernandez said.
"We do really try to be sensitive to the environment and the surroundings," said Elizabeth Pizzinato, a spokeswoman for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, based in Toronto.
Conservationists have argued that any type of resort would harm a spot known to locals as "La Selva," or the forest, after the thick stands of coastal trees, brush and coconut palms flush against a tropical beach.
The Sierra Club and its members last month helped send thousands of faxes to government offices and the hotels' corporate headquarters, Rivera-Herrera said. Opponents also are trying to block the projects in the courts and before Puerto Rico's planning and environmental quality boards.
The latter approved an environmental impact study in November for the $160 million Marriott. After the ruling, investor Efrain Kier accused "psuedoenvironmentalists" of trying to derail the project without sound scientific reasons.
"They simply oppose everything," Kier said. "They have various projects in Puerto Rico paralyzed right now because they oppose everything."
Some critics say they fear the hotels' lights would interfere with sea turtle nesting on the beaches, as the animals use moonlight to guide themselves back to the sea. But Kier said the lights won't reach the shore and that turtles will be well-protected.
Backers say thousands of jobs would be generated by the resorts, helping lift an economically depressed area on the U.S. territory.
Rivera-Herrera said opponents will keep up legal challenges and lobbying to protect the 3,200-acre site. If necessary, he said, they are prepared to camp out on the land in acts of civil disobedience.
Miguel Davila, a 52-year-old fishmonger who has angled off these beaches for years, said he regrets the development that has covered much of Puerto Rico's coasts. Building hotels at this spot would spoil its natural beauty, he said. "What are we going to tell our children if we lose it?"
The beach of 'La Selva' or the forest, near the eastern town of Fajardo, Puerto Rico is shown in this 2004 file photo. The tranquil beach fringed with nothing but tropical forests, cattle ranches and turquoise seas is at the center of a looming battle between environmentalists and developers who plan two resorts along one of Puerto Rico's least disturbed stretches of coastline. (AP Photo/IDS, file)
Got to love that water.
You could once a new resort is built.
Actually, the color in the picture is aquamarine.
The color that's halfway between green and blue is cyan.
Aquamarine is between green and cyan, and that's the color that's in the picture.
Turquoise is between cyan and blue.
So, it goes like this: green, aquamarine, cyan, turquoise, blue.
"pseudo-environmentalist"
One thing about this bunch. The Surfrider Foundation aims to protect surfing beaches. At some points around the island, condos and hotels were built so close to the shore that they disrupted winds and the surf. That's understandable but that's not the case with this development.
The other "environmental" groups are fronts for leftists who operate under the principle: "To save society we have to destroy it first." These are the same people who opposed the Navy at the nearby Roosevelt Roads NS and Vieques, and as a fellow freeper mentioned on another thread, like locusts they come, destroy and then move on. With the shutdown of Rosie this area is in sore need of jobs but do you think they care? Of course not.
I guess I'm starting to believe in evolution and "survival of the fittest".
If the sea turtles can't seem to figure out some way to navigate that will accomodate the most fit creature in the environment - man - then they either better buy GPSs or go the way of the dodo.
We're already given them a big leg up by agreeing not to turn them into turtle soup.
It is gorgeous.
I saw a piece of property I didn't want developed, so I bought it.
What a concept, eh?
This is of the "If a tree falls in the forest....?" genre. Who cares how beautiful it is if no one has access to it?
So where is "teal" supposed to fit in the scheme of things?
Teal is cyan at half brightness.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.