Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 14:01:45 -0500 Reply-To: l-appelbaum@mindspring.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Laura M. Appelbaum" Subject: Worn out welcome MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Just a thought in response to Bob Mumford's message about a particular landowner on Oland Road being really ticked off at us birders ... one of his complaints is that someone broke his fence, which surely would get anyone angry. What do y'all think about one of us contacting Mr. Crawford on behalf of MOS and offering for some of us birders to come up in the spring when the ground is soft again, and replacing the broken section of fencing/helping walk the property and mend other areas as well? I'm a long-time member of the NSS (National Speleological Society) and since many caves in the East are on private property, we try to put a special emphasis on landowner-caver relationships. This kind of situation (trespassing, broken fences, etc) comes up often, and we've found that making appeasing gestures, even in cases where the damage hasn't been done by our membership, can go a long way to rehabilitate the image of cavers in the eyes of locals. Even if a given landowner turns down an offer of assistance, it does seem to help if they feel that someone is willing to take responsibility. Sounds to me like this might be one of those cases only vis a vis birders. Laura Appelbaum Cloverly, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================