Reproduced below is the text of a letter from E. O. Wilson, Curator of Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. World renowned ecologist and author and twice the winner of the Pulitzer prize. Recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1977. A winner of the 1990 Crafoord Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize awarded in non-Nobel fields of science, such as ecology. Among his best known books are: Sociobiology; The Diversity of Life; The Ants (Pulitzer, 1991); On Human Nature (Pulitzer, 1979).  

8 January 1998

Ms. Bonnie Bick

President, Friends of Mt. Aventine
PO Box K
Bryans Road, Maryland  20616  

Dear Ms. Bick:  

I'm sorry not to have responded to your letter of November 29 sooner.  The proof-reading and last-minute checking on my forthcoming book on the liberal arts (and environment), due out in March, has been totally absorbing in the past few weeks.  

I am happy to add my word of encouragement to the Chapman Woods campaign.  The forest you are seeking to preserve has great importance for its biodiversity content, magnified many times over in its humanitarian value due to its proximity to the large urban and suburban populations of the D.C. area.  To save a remnant of America's natural heritage of this nature would be a gift to future generations unmatchable by any other that could be provided in the same place, on the same land.  I wish you success.

With warm regards,

 <signed>

Edward O. Wilson