Naturalist Geoffrey Platts remembered.
Ceremony
held near his bench at Jewel of the Creek. By Curtis
Riggs., Sonoran News.,
23 Apr. 2009
CAVE
CREEK - A group of over 30 environmentalists paid
homage to former local naturalist Geoffrey Platts over the weekend just
a few days before Earth Day.
The group, which included his old friends and the
ones whose lives he shaped with his "green" ways, gathered to remember
Platts and talk about how he made them more aware of nature and the need
to preserve it. They also heard from Sierra Club
Grand Canyon chapter Conservation Director Sandy Bahr about pending
environmental legislation or the lack thereof.
"I miss him and I miss his postcards," Bahr said
about the letters he wrote to her from his one-room cabin at Camp Creek.
"I get a lot of e-mails anymore, but not many postcards.
Platts, who was such a naturalist that he made the
ink he used to write his letters and postcards from walnuts, drowned in
the Verde River in December of 2001. Although the
eccentric Englishman is no longer around to tout his environmental ways,
the Friends of Geoffrey (FOG) group carries on his memory, holding an
event annually around his birthday.
"To know him was to love him if you weren't a
developer," his friend Catherine Elswick said. "There were many
universal truths about Geoffrey Platts while he always gave so much to
the larger issues, he always made time for his friends."
FOG's mission, according to Sonandres. "We are
trying to do what Geoffrey followed, which was to take care of the
environment."
Bahr pointed out there are many state legislators
who care about the environment, while lamenting the lack of them in
leadership positions.
She brought up local District 6 State Rep. Ray
Barnes, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the
Environment in her comments, and said he is "very hostile to
environmental protection."
"He says that he talks to God, but he is not so
fond of creation." she said about Barnes. "We have a
lot of difficulty in working with him."
She added her current focus is "trying to convince
the Legislature that environmental protection is important.
“The current trend is moving in a positive
direction, but it is important to take advantage of what could just be a
fad. It is important that people incorporate environmental practices
into their daily lives.” |
