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THANKS TO VOLUNTEERS

To the editor:

With the busy-ness of the holidays now upon us, the staff at the Adult Community Day Center would like to pause and thank all the volunteers who make our program so very special for our clients. Nantucket is a giving community and we are honored that so many folks share so much of themselves with our program.

Thank you to the Canine Gang who visit every Tuesday: Diane Lang (Rudy and Buzz), Joyce Jaskula (Pip and Finn), Lynn Wolff (Jake) and Diane Asche (Riley). Our clients enjoy the unconditional love of both the dogs and their humans.

Thank you to Linda McDonough-Thayer and her band of merry preschoolers who join us every Thursday for play, snacks, music, and lap time.

We miss Peggy Krewson who sang and played the piano faithfully every Thursday, but welcome Jonathan Thayer, Susie Jarrell and Susan Dupree who bring their instruments, voices and general good cheer.

Thank you to Carol and Pat Muehling. They have been field trip volunteers extraordinaire, charming hosts and have brought the "girls" Annie and Sammie every Friday for conversation and sloppy kisses.

Thank you to Jackie Seidel who also visits on Fridays to sing, play the piano and regale us with hilarious tales of her travels and teaching.

Erma Bombeck said it best:"Volunteers don't contribute to civilization. They are civilization . . . they are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect the nation's compassion, unselfishness, caring, patience, need, and just plain loving one another. It frightens me, somehow, to imagine what the world would be without them."

Happy Holidays,

- All of us at ACDC

Deeply Concerned

HOW WILL THIS GREENIE BENEFIT?

This following letter was originally sent to Massachusetts Audubon and is reprinted here at the author's request.

Dear Dr. Allison of Mass Audubon:

I am responding to your letter to South Coast Today of November 16, 2006, and your statement regarding the writer of "Will Mass Audubon benefit from the Cape Wind Project?" Please clarify your comment: the writer is "wrong in every respect."

While you did not name me in your letter, I am the contributor of "Will Mass Audubon benefit from Cape Wind project?" I recite Mass. Audubon's testimony regarding the risk that Cape Wind presents to up to 6,600 birds, according to your staff scientists' research provided to the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. If I am wrong, your staff scientists would be wrong. I am profoundly concerned that you, Dr. Allison, in your official capacity with Mass. Audubon, have denied the avian mortality testimony by Mass. Audubon made to the USACE to the press. The reason that this concerns me is that up to 6,600 birds per year could die by Cape Wind, according to this testimony by Mass. Audubon that you claim was never made. The public, agencies, regulators, and stakeholders are effectively being denied the opportunity to consider Mass Audubon's staff scientists' critical determination and testimony that:

"By utilizing other bird mortality data provided in the DEIS, Mass. Audubon staff scientists arrived at avian mortalities that ranged from 2,300 to 6,600 collision deaths per year." This is Mass. Audubon's testimony to the USACE on the Cape Wind DEIS of February 23, 2005.

SouthCoastToday: 8/03/06 By Taber Allison: "Letter writer gets bird facts wrong"

"Barbara Durkin repeatedly misquotes our public comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Study for the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound as she does most recently in her July 26 Letter to the Editor. Mass. Audubon scientists have never concluded that up to 6,600 birds, or any number of birds, would be killed if this project is permitted . . . "

Will Mass Audubon commit to executing a detailed, binding and enforceable declaration made to regulators, animal rights organizations, stakeholders, and citizens that Mass Audubon, its agencies, assigns, associates, and or fledgling organizations, that states that Mass Audubon will not benefit financially if the Cape Wind application is favorably acted upon by our regulators? . . .

The favorable public opinion of the Cape Wind project appears to be what Mass. Audubon is courting.

Most importantly, your South Coast Today letter of November 16 states:

"Mass. Audubon does not benefit financially from the Cape Wind Project. We have not accepted and will not accept funding from Cape Wind, Inc. or the project's opponents. Our position on the Cape Wind Project consistently has been based on a thorough and objective, scientific review of the project's potential environmental benefits and impacts."

Dr. Allison, your statements reflect your understanding of the importance and need for a thorough and objective scientific environmental review of the Cape Wind proposal.

Your letter of November 16, 2006 to South Coast Today:

"Mass. Audubon's position misunderstood

"A recent opinion piece published in SouthCoast Today takes issue with Mass. Audubon's challenge to the Cape Wind Energy Project and to the project's state and federal permitting agencies. The writer of this piece makes several claims about Mass. Audubon that are wrong in every respect.

"Our challenge describes the conditions that could lead to Mass. Audubon's support of the Cape Wind project. The challenge is the result of thousands of hours of Mass. Audubon staff time over the past five years, including hundreds of hours of plane and boat surveys of bird distribution and behavior in Nantucket Sound. All of our survey data were provided to the Army Corps of Engineers and Minerals Management Service at no cost.

"Mass. Audubon does not benefit financially from the Cape Wind Project. We have not accepted and will not accept funding from Cape Wind, Inc. or the project's opponents. Our position on the Cape Wind Project consistently has been based on a thorough and objective, scientific review of the project's potential environmental benefits and impacts.

"The details of Mass. Audubon's position on Cape Wind, the challenge, and the results of our avian surveys of Nantucket Sound are available on our web site at www.massaudubon.org/wind."

- Taber D. Allilson, PhD

Lincoln

South Coast Today editor's note: Mr. Allison is vice president of Conservation Science and Ecological Management for the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

Mass. Audubon must disclose any potential financial benefit it might have in the outcome of the Cape Wind proposal if it is to be considered an objective and unbiased reviewing agency. Mass Audubon must declare if it or its affiliations are to become the monitoring agency, or will bid on this contract, or accept this contract that it imposes as a condition of its "preliminary approval" by its "challenge" so that we can all "get this right."

Time is of the essence.

- Barbara Durkin