Posted on 05/26/2006 6:34:01 PM PDT by blam
Dutch told to return land they won from the sea
By David Rennie in Zaamslag
(Filed: 27/05/2006)
A photograph of a grinning boy, riding a toy tractor, has pride of place in the kitchen of Aarnout and Magda de Feijter, the owners of a 148-acre farm in the Dutch province of Zeeland.
The picture is of their first grandson, Louis, and the de Feijters have always dreamed that he will one day take over the expanse of wind-rippled flax fields that has been in their family since 1835.
The de Feijters on the dyke protecting their farm
But there are other plans. In the name of European Union environmental directives, their farm is earmarked for flooding - the first time in Holland's centuries-long battle against water that a substantial piece of land is to be deliberately returned to the sea.
Some 230 years after its flat pastures were wrested from the waters, the de Feijters' farm - their home for 33 years - is to be re-flooded to reverse the disappearance of Zeeland's mudflats and salt marshes.
For the family - raised in a province that owes its very existence to dyke systems dating from the Middle Ages - the plan is "un-Dutch". Breaching dykes is behaviour associated with invading armies, noted Mr de Feijter. Flooding a "polder", as land enclosed by a dyke is known, "has always been an act of war", he said.
The couple have planted chestnut trees and apple orchards and resent hearing that it is ecologically less important than salt marshes.
"Isn't this landscape beautiful?" said Mrs de Feijter. "There are birds, there are flowers. It's green."
The final decision must be ratified by parliament next year, but chances of a reprieve look slim. Dutch officials support the project, part of a scheme to re-flood 1,500 acres of land on the banks of the Western Schelde estuary. The re-flooding has been imposed by the EU Habitats directive, and the EU Birds directive.
The end will be quick. Engineers will build a new dyke behind the de Feijters' land and demolish their 150-year-old farmhouse. Then they will breach the high, grass-sided dyke at the bottom of their drive and the sea will rush in.
Mrs de Feijter was eight during the flood of February 1953, when almost 2,000 people died across Holland. Now, their farm is serene. There is no feel of the coast about their polder. You could imagine yourself a hundred miles inland - until you notice the top decks of a container ship slowly slide past.
Anton van Haperen, a wetlands expert with the Dutch national forestry service, is blunt. Since 1960, Zeeland has lost two thirds of its wetlands, he said. "Farmland has less value, ecologically." Yet he has no doubt that, without EU laws, politicians would not dare to flood farmers' fields.
The de Feijters will be given compensation, worth £2 million. They talk of buying a new farm and starting again, though they are in their 60s.
They do not rail against the EU, instead blaming "environmental extremists". Arguably, their foes are the shoppers of Holland and Belgium, with their appetite for cheap goods from the Far East.
In order to allow ever bigger container ships into Antwerp harbour, a deeper channel is to be dredged that will speed up erosion of the banks.
It is that loss of habitat that must be compensated for.
Gerard van Overloop, the government official who will oversee the flooding, said: "For hundreds of years, Zeeland was built by taking land from the sea. Now we are doing the opposite and it goes against our nature."
My husband was born in the Netherlands during that storm.
It is this time, too. The Dutch need to go to the barricades on this one.
Why did they ignore the obvious place to build an estuary - in the North Sea? Just as the sea was diked to make the farm land, an estuary would seem easier & cheaper to build the same way & not compromise the integrity of the existing dike system.
Bear in mind that Holland is, I believe, the most densely populated country in Europe. Flooding existing land that is in short supply is just plain dumb.
I am going to stop saying "F. U." to certain people and replace it with "E. U." as it is much more degrading.
That silly tower in Pisa is going to have to be straightened up too.
they should rail against their nutball politicians. In fact, they should run them out of town on a rail.
What a shame. The Enviro wackos are like the ACLU etc.
Sh*t!!
I guess the Atlantic Ocean isn't big enough.
Every time I read one of these articles I am reminded of an old movie shown on Pat Robertson's FAMILY CHANNEL a few years ago.
I don't remember the name of the movie but it starred either Hans Conreid or Everet Edward Horton as an MC to a miss world competition.
I about choked when the mc of the competition introduced...
"And here we have Miss Amsterdam, who shamed Holland when she stuck her finger in the dike."
Again, Pat Robertson's Family Channel.
So you read "Unintended Consequences" too?
Is an associated group of the UN.
They also have plans to 're-wild' North America.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1568683/posts
A Real-Life Jurassic Park
OPINION: EU, UN, the Chinese...etc, they love America and they want it for themselves.
Chinese reference of interest:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts?page=223#223
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts?page=225#225
EU-niks.
The perfect term for people whose manhood is in question.
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