New Page Added- North Sea

In the last ten days I have been researching a part of the world that has interested me ever since I visited as a college student back in 1975. I am speaking of Holland, or the Netherlands. It is curious that I have developed such a keen interest in this part of the world, as I see myself as such a westerner, a person of the mountains and deserts here in California, and a person of the big rivers and even bigger mountains of Alaska where I spend my summers. The Netherlands is so flat; some of it is below sea level. And that is the reason for my multifaceted interest. Very level land looks amazing on maps. So many different lines and shapes along the water that you just don’t see in terrain with greater relief. And the whole story of the Dutch and their experiments controlling the sea so they can survive it’s storms and constant rising waters makes for a great read if you love landscape, water, rivers, oceans, history, and even birds and flowers like I do. I can already tell that the people of these lowlands treasure these things for sure.

Anyway, I am going to investigate this small country and try to understand what I can about what they have learned about managing salt and fresh water and creating land. It seems the perfect case study for a person that got his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design. I have three books ordered all about the Dutch, their history, the Delta Works, the huge sea walls, the polders, and their planning for global warming. So this is just a blog entry to say I am starting the research. I’ll make a full statement for the main website when I know what to say. In the meantime, if you do visit my site, take a look at the new tab- NORTH SEA