The mother's try at nursing her grief

New work to remove beach vitex, the “kudzu of the beach,” will help restore nesting sites for sea turtles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded a $135,000 grant to Clemson for dune restoration to protect the endangered species.

Chuck Gresham, forest scientist at the Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science in Georgetown, will lead the effort. Sea turtles, federally listed as threatened or endangered in South Carolina, abort their attempt to dig a nest if they encounter vitex at the base of sand dunes.

Everywhere I went, I kept asking "why?" and digging deeper and deeper. Why were dumps so hazardous? Because of the toxics in the trash. And why were there toxics in the trashed products to begin with? Answering that question led me to learn about toxics, chemistry, and environmental health. Why were dumps so often situated in lower-income communities where people of color live and work? I started learning about environmental racism.

And why does it make economic sense to move entire factories to other countries: how can they still sell the product for a couple of dollars when it's traveling so far? Suddenly I had to confront international trade agreements and the influence of corporations on governmental regulations. And another thing: why are electronics breaking so fast and why are they cheaper to replace than repair? So I learned about planned obsolescence, advertising, and other tools for promoting consumerism. On the surface, each of these topics seemed separate from the next, unconnected, and a long way from those piles of garbage on the streets of New York City or the forests of the Cascades. But it turns out they're all connected.

Her daughter was dead. The mother's try at nursing her grief in the burn of a crack pipe had landed her in lockup.

One by one, Vickie counted down her days in jail on a calendar until she reached 50.

Fifty days in a cage for a parent who would have given anything to save her slain child, Jessica Green.

Fifty days to obsess about why she was the battered soul still standing.

Vickie had gone back to booze in the three months after her 18-year-old daughter's slaying. The recovering addict was seconds from lighting a crack pipe when the beam of a Jacksonville police officer's flashlight found her in a car with a California fugitive.

Restoration will occur in stages. First, the highest priority areas are identified and permission obtained from the property owner. Next, herbicide is applied to a machete cut in the vitex and allowed to work for four months. Finally, native sea oats and bitter panicum are planted to build stable dunes for turtle nests.