Hello All, Here in the Nation's Capital, we have lost some of our national treasures. Every year for as long as I can remember people have come to Washington as tourists during the last week of March first week of April not to just go and see things like the Smithsonian museums, but they come to enjoy the beauty of the park known as the National Mall. The mall is not a shopping mall, though you can still find many sidewalk venders nearby. This mall is a narrow passage way through the Northwest part of DC that contains many of our national landmarks like the Washington Monument, a 555 foot tall obelisk that offers astounding views of Washington, Prince George's County, and Arlington County. The US Capital is on this mall as well as the Lincoln Memorial. The Smithsonian museums are along the sides of this mall (Except for the zoo) and the Vietnam Veterans memorial is also on this mall. Just off the Mall to the South, There is the Jefferson Memorial, which believe it or not, looks like Thomas Jefferson's own architecture was used in it's construction. Between the National Mall and the Jefferson memorial is a body of water known as the Tidal Basin, which is like a lake that is fed by the Potomac River. This Tidal Basin is lined with one of the most popular national treasures called "Cherry Trees" The Cherry Trees were given to us by Japan as a gift in a political gesture many years ago and they stand to inspire beauty in the Nation's Capital. Suddenly, these rodents known as Beavers show up. DC is known for it's rodents and it's rodent problem reaches far and wide, but rodents of this type are not indigenous to the DC area. The Beavers begin to do what they do best, start building the lodges and dams. Nine of the cherry trees got chomped on by these little varmints and they are not salvageable. It is a sad day for National Parks, because the one thing that the Department of Interior works so hard to protect turned on them. Well, you bet that Tokyo has called Washington about this incident. The Park service (DOI) would do well to get these animals trapped and relocated to perhaps a better suited park like the Prince William Forest Park, which would undoubtedly benefit from beavers building their dams and lodges along the Quantico creek. As always, the protesters and picketers and whiners and complainers always show up too, to leave the Park Service in a catch 22 situation, they are dag-goned, if they do and dag-goned if they don't. The beavers got named Billy and Betty, but should have been named after George and Martha Washington. George Washington himself chopped down a cherry tree and couldn't lie about it, well, the beaver chomped down 9 cherry trees and can't lie about it either. The main concern is that DC is going to get over run with Beaver babies and we will have no national trees left. Tourists are quick to tell the Park Rangers where the Beavers are, but the Park Rangers are battling against red tape to come up with a decision as to what to do about it. Mike Burke _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eat the hay & spit out the sticks!" RTKB&G4JC! Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rangernet.org
