Supporting Nature

The ground, terra firma, is the foundation for all plant life. It gives root systems a toe-hold through which they can draw most of the nutrients necessary for their development. It is therefore incumbent on us to sustain or even add to that support system by avoiding pollutants and adding nutrients.

The ground, the earth, varies in its type and quality of nutrients giving rise to the wide variety of species to be found around the World. If we import alien plants we will have to supplement the nutrients if we want them to survive. This is not a 'one-off' effort but a continuing demand throughout the plant's life. The other plant support comes from above in the form of sunlight and rain. We cannot easily supplement sunlight in a natural environment other than by using areas of light and shade, but we can supplement rain. We do so on a grand scale, particularly in periods of drought, so we need to retain the purity of our water and even add to its nutritional value.

Our own Suffolk County has a leading program on the reduction of nitrates in our ground water and we all have a duty to support them by reducing demand and avoiding chemical pollutants.