TODAY'S ISSUE
Funds desperately needed to save our hemlock forests
By Dr. Mark Shearer
Special to GwinnettForum.com

(Editor's Note: the author is a retired educator who has taught in colleges and high schools. Formerly a resident of Stone Mountain, he now resides by Yahoola Creek near Dahlonega. A similar article first appeared in The Dahlonega Nugget.---eeb)

DAHLONEGA, Dec. 6, 2005 -- The State of Georgia desperately needs your help. As you have probably heard, the hemlock trees in North Georgia are now under attack by a tiny insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid. This infestation started in Virginia, and is now moving both north and south. At present, it is devastating hemlocks in Rabun County and is spreading fast across other counties.

If we cannot get this terrible pest under control, the citizens of our state stand to lose over 50,000 acres of hemlocks. Most of these trees stand along rivers and streams. They add protection to many species of plants and animals, provide wonderful aesthetic beauty to some of our favorite hiking, camping, and recreation spots, and help purify the waters that begin their fresh flow in our North Georgia Mountains. If we lose these hemlocks, it will have deleterious long-term effects on our ecosystems, tourism, property values, and our economy.

Hemlock woolly adelgids cannot be controlled in the forest by chemical means. Thus, many local groups and organization have joined forces to help combat the loss of these beloved trees by trying to raise money for a laboratory at the University of Georgia that will help implement biological controls. This lab will raise three varieties of predatory beetles that feed only on adelgids.

When the lab becomes operational, the Department of Natural Resources, the Forestry Commission, and the USDA Forest Service stand ready to begin planned releases of beetles so that, hopefully, at least 50 percent of our hemlocks can be saved, preserving our favorite parks, hiking, and fishing areas in North Georgia.

If you want to see maps of the proposed (USDA, DNR) treatment sites in the Chattahoochee National Forest, go to this addresss: www.gafw.org/2005_HWA_Comment_Chap_1_2_3.pdf. The massive document has maps in the back of the treatment sites according to the available options, depending on which one is chosen.

The upper Chestatee River basin, if I am not mistaken, is a high-priority area. You might be interested to know that the HWA has already been found just below Lake Winfield Scott. The HWA spreads from 12 to 25 miles a year, so we're trying to be ready here.

If we hope to slow the spread of the hemlock woolly adelgid and have a fighting chance against this prolific breeder, we need to get the beetle lab running by January 2006. The timing is urgent. The University of Georgia has already generously provided building and equipment, but there are start-up costs of $81,000 for the air conditioning and infrastructure to raise the beetles. Because of ownership and service considerations, these funds must come from private citizens. So far, various organizations have raised a little more than $40,000, but this is not yet enough.

Will you please help? The members of Lumpkin Coalition, Georgia Wildlife Federation, the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and Forest Watch ask that you consider a contribution to this effort. Your donation will be tax deductible and help preserve the quality of life we all enjoy in North Georgia.

You may make your check out to Forest Watch and send it to Forest Watch, 15 Tower Road, Ellijay, Ga. 30540. Please put "beetle lab" on the bottom of your check.

Or, you may use paypal at www.gafw.org. If, for whatever reasons, we cannot get the lab operational, your money will be returned to you.

Please consider your donation as a Christmas gift to these beautiful trees and to the children of Georgia in hopes that they may enjoy the beauty of our mountains as we do.

ELLIOTT BRACK
Internet provides new insight into Barbara Mackle story
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher
GwinnettForum.com

DEC. 6, 2005 -- Today's quotation (last item in GwinnettForum) is appropriate. For I have been recounting a story for years, and now realize parts of what I said were wrong.

Whenever talking about the history of Gwinnett, the audience usually wants to know about the Emory co-ed who was kidnapped and buried alive for four nights and three days near Berkeley Lake back in 1968.

It's the Barbara Mackle story. For years we're recounted the story, and how she was finally rescued. We've said that she had never spoken publicly about her ordeal, nor recounted her story in a book.

Not so, we learned in an email from a lady in Oklahoma who was personally involved as an unwitting participant in the unfolding story.

A quick synopsis of the main story: While a junior at Emory, Barbara Mackle was kidnapped, slightly drugged, confined in a coffin-like box, and buried in a desolate wooded area near what is now South Berkeley Lake Road. A fan, some food and water, batteries and air supply were rigged for the box. Four days later, after the kidnappers were paid a ransom, she was dug up, found alive, and has said little publicly about her confinement. She was the daughter of a Florida developer, who paid a $500,000 ransom, which was quickly recovered.

Her assailants were Gary Steven Krist, an Alaskan who had an extended petty criminal record, and his accomplice, Ruth Eisemann-Schier, a Honduran in love with Krist. (Another error of mine: I thought she was a Guatamalan.)

Krist was captured first, and tried, and sentenced. Eisemann-Schier eluded police for some months, and was finally captured in Oklahama. That's where LaDonna Wilds enters the story.

You see, Eisemann-Schier stole the Social Security card of Wilds, who was living in Norman, Okla., and who befriended her. Eisemann-Schier worked for about a month in Norman under the name of "Donna Wills," (slightly changing the last name) before she was caught by the FBI. The first thing Ms. Wilds knew about Ms. Schier was after Schier had been arrested, and FBI agents interviewed Mrs. Wilds. She did not know of Schier's past, nor even realize then that her Social Security card had been stolen.

Recently when Ms. Wilds was on the internet, she came across a May 6, 2005 GwinnettForum article (mostly about Jennifer Wilbanks) saying Barbara Mackle had never said nor written anything about her kidnapping. LaDonna Wilds knew better, for she had found a book, 83 Hours Till Dawn, which Ms. Mackle had co-authored with a Miami, Fla. reporter, Gene Miller. He later went on to win two Pulitizer Prizes. (Incidentally, the highly-respected reporter, Miller, died in June of this year.)

Though the book is long out of print, we found a copy via the Internet, and have read it. It's fascinating, better than any fictional mystery. It unfolds the entire case, and other than one single two-minute TV public appearance, the book is the only statement Ms. Mackle has made since.

Later on, basically working from the book, a TV movie (The Longest Night) was made about the case. Neither the reporter, Miller, nor Ms. Mackle, authorized using the book as the basis for the movie, resulting in a lawsuit and a jury awarding Miller $200,000 in damages. Similarities between the book and movie were extensive, with the movie having the same errors Miller had in the book. You can see why Miller won his case.

Today Ms. Mackle lives in Florida, but does not give public interviews. She is reported to be married, though this has not been verified.

Thanks to the Internet and LaDonna Wilds, we have learned considerably more about the Barbara Mackle kidnapping, and now correct our previous errors.

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FEEDBACK
12/6: Questions 'wisdon' found in quote in GwinnettForum

Editor, the Forum:

Fred Reed, via Marshall Miller as quoted in the Gwinnettforum:

"The reason for the all-volunteer military was to let the smart and rich avoid service and instead send kids from middle-class and blue-collar families. It works."

This unfortunate quote is not only misleading and cynical it is also completely inaccurate. Although some Democrats in Congress have advocated reintroducing a military draft in the interest of "fairness", you will find very few if any military leaders in favor of it. The all volunteer military has resulted in better quality and higher motivated recruits and that in turn has helped to make the US military the finest fighting force in history.

Economist Dr. Tim Kane has compiled demographic data obtained from the
Defense Department and has come up with the opposite of what Mr. Reed has contended.

Dr Kane's findings:

"...Overall, the income distribution of military enlistees is more similar to than different from the income distribution of the general population."

Also:

"We find that, on average, recruits tend to be much more highly educated than the general public and that this education disparity increased after the war on terrorism began."

While it is true that the bulk of military volunteers do come from middle class families, it's because there are more middle class families than rich ones. The percentage representation in the military from income groups is very close to what the general population is, with the exception of the lower classes being somewhat underrepresented as their education is not up to what is required in today's military service. It is NOT due to a conspiracy by U.S. leaders to spare rich kids from military service as implied in the quotation.

Here is the link to Dr Kane's Center for Data Analysis Report #5-08: http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda05-08.cfm

This quote is an example of more "conventional wisdom" (if not actual misinformation) found to be inaccurate by facts.

-- Lee Hutchins, Hog Mountain, Ga.

NOTABLE
Greene wins award from two groups for volunteer work

Gwinnett County Retiree Ralph Greene has received a award for Outstanding Community Service from the American Association of Retired Persona and the National Retired Teachers Association.

For the past three years he and his wife Pat have worked with Chief Assistant Solicitor Rosanna Szabo of the Gwinnett County Solicitor's Office and the Gwinnett County Retired Educators Association with the Hands Are Not for Hitting program to teach students age 6 to 9 conflict resolution skills.

Greene also maintains web sites for the Georgia Retired Educators Association and Gwinnett County Retired Educators Association and the Hands Are Not for Hitting.

He's shown with Rosa Fite, Youth Chair, and Gwinnett County Retired Educators Association President Nancy O'Neill.

RECOMMENDATION

• An invitation: What Web sites, books or restaurants have you enjoyed? Send us your best recent visit to a restaurant or most recent book you have read along with a short paragraph as to why you liked it, plus what book you plan to read next. --eeb
  
  
  

GEORGIA TIDBIT
16th century Aboriginal town found in northwest Georgia

The King site is a mid-16th-century aboriginal town located on the Coosa River in western Floyd County in northwest Georgia. It covers a little more than five acres and is bounded by a defensive ditch and palisade. A plaza occupied the center of the town and contained at least two public buildings: structure 17, measuring fifteen meters square and filled with benches, probably functioned as a meetinghouse; structure 16, the smaller of the two, is of unknown function. South of these buildings, in the exact center of the town, is a large posthole that probably held a post measuring almost one meter in diameter and six to ten meters in height.

King site

The habitation zone contained two types of domestic structures: square, semi-subterranean houses with peaked roofs and earth-embanked walls; and rectangular corn cribs elevated two meters or so above ground. The former were domestic residences utilized during the cooler months of the year. The latter were used for storage of foodstuffs and provided a shaded space for domestic activities during the summer months. Household members were buried beneath both types of structures and in the outdoor space surrounding them. Ten adult males were interred beneath the floor of the meetinghouse.

The King site was first occupied at some time during the first half of the 16th century with the construction of half a dozen or so domestic structures. Within a decade additional households appeared, and the town was formally laid out with its defensive perimeter, plaza, and habitation zone. The town existed in this form for 20 to 30 years and then was abandoned. During its existence it was probably visited by members of the Hernando de Soto (1540) and/or Tristan de Luna (1560) expeditions. Iron tools and a sword were interred with a small number of burials. The iron tools were probably obtained in trade from the Spanish, while the sword may have been obtained by other means. Whether the town's abandonment was a result of Spanish contact is not known.

• To access the Georgia Encyclopedia, go to http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
  
  

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
Sometimes we need to question the things we know best

"The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize nor question."

-- Author Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002)

• Another invitation: What's your favorite saying? Share with others through GwinnettForum. Send to elliott@gwinnettforum.com.
  

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