To me, the next two stories are among the most inspiring in this section—for they illustrate what can be accomplished by one person working, against all odds, to heal utterly devastated environments. True, in the first of them, the one person—Rene Haller—was a qualified horticulturist and hired to do the job. But he, and he alone, worked out the methods that, in the long run, changed “wilderness to paradise.” In the second story, Paul Rokich initially worked entirely alone on a project that appeared—probably to everyone but himself—impractical, absurd, and impossible. The fact that both these men ultimately triumphed is testament to their ingenuity and determination.
Mining for Hope
This is the tale of the ecological transformation of a five-hundred-acre “wasteland” created by twenty years of quarrying for the underlying corral limestone and shale on the Kenya coast, not far from Mombasa. This land had been quarried by a cement company to within less than an inch of the brackish water below and Read More
This story is about the absurd dream of a six-year-old boy that eventually came true. There was no fairy godmother waving a magic wand. Only sheer determination to see his childish vision become reality.
This hero is Paul Rokich. He was born in 1932 in Utah. His father worked for the big copper mine at Read More
