This could save beaches, lakes or woods long used by local people when access to these is threatened by land sales; but there would not be enough money for purchases of huge tracts of forest land.
The fire, which could be seen as far as 25 miles along the Oregon coast, was a last-ditch effort to save beaches from a potentially devastating oil spill that could foul the shoreline and threaten endangered species.
My hunt starts in a cafe in Sofia, where Andrey Kovatchev, an ecologist who has dedicated himself to saving the beaches, draws directions in my notebook.
All of this has prompted officials in California, a heavily Democratic state that President Bush lost by a lopsided margin, to ask why saving their beaches and sensitive environment was not as high a priority, particularly since many here have been fighting offshore oil leases in the Santa Barbara area for decades.
Without missing a beat, she answered, "Yes, but look what we're saving on beach tags".
In general, the scientific community favors the construction of dunes to save the beaches as an environmentally benign approach to beach preservation.
"We donated clothes to flood victims in Nashville and raised money in Alabama to save the beaches," said Stacey Bendet, the line's designer.
Though we can hope that scientists will be able to manipulate the river to save the beaches and species, my gut sense is that there cannot be a win-win for the environment and the entrenched economic interests.
But Margaret River has at least shown how the French idea of terroir (highlighting a region's particular characteristics) can have its place down under.As for the region itself, I can only hope its isolation saves its beaches, forests, charming towns and (most of all) its wine quality from the ravages of tourism.
The seventh- and eighth-graders, who were invited to attend the 2011 Algalita's Plastics Are Forever International Youth Summit in March, asked the city for help to save the beaches by supporting their efforts to ban Styrofoam and single use of plastic bags.
