Sustained forests; sustained profits

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Realtor02

Example of an exploratory letter with a leader in the NASA applications program:

Sample correspondence:

Dear Mr. __________

I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Townsend discuss "Mission to Planet Earth" and to explore some ideas about how practical applications of some of the Mission's products and results might be made. He suggested that we talk. I look forward to that, but before giving you a call, I thought you might like to see a sketch of a proposal.

The situation is that I retire in June, 1998. I'll affiliate with a small business, FORESTERS, INC. We have a potential customer, ... I see a NASA University, small-business, private land owner union that may handsomely benefit NASA and its effort to make products, benefits, jobs, and economic opportunities more conspicuous. I've been "doing GIS" before it was called that starting in 1969. I propose that I contribute my salary to the project and that we not lose working dollars in University overhead and that NASA provide Foresters, Inc. $90,000 and open access to data for a 2-year project in which we show the world (via the Web and other media) as many as possible useful and profitable map-like products from past and current work of NASA. The work will be of a highly applied nature, not just displaying that maps can be made (or that such maps can be sold), but that maps to improve commercial or profit-oriented decisions can be produced for an area. The demonstration area will be the area of my client. The implication is that similar services can be available.

The products (some based on previous work of my students and on ancillary databases such ad DEMs provided by the area owners) may include:

• Selected sites for commercial development
• Selected headquarters and warehouse sites
• Timber values
• Timber harvest schedule sequence
• Protected areas to avoid litigation over threatened and endangered plant or animal species.
• Dynamic forest profits (growth) over 10 years.
• Dynamic cattle forage values over 10 years.
• Soil nutrient loss rates (erosion) in cost-of-replacement units or foregone value
• Ecotourism potentials (visitor and profit capacity: several types)

We know how to do such a project. The money is needed to pay a small staff to do a lot of hard work for a large area quickly. We'd guarantee at least 6 major products including placing them on a web site(s), and submission of articles and maps to the general press (not technical publications) about each product. We'd do a project report describing the process.

Can we work together? This activity can benefit us all. All of us will be making substantial investments. My only (but greatest) benefit will be in seeing some of my work of 40 years materialize in the products and in the processes and systems for future applications.

I hope that we can work together on this non-research, non-product-development, university-related, not-small-business project that can be very conspicuous for NASA. I'll call and I can be reached at RHGiles@vt.edu. My phone is 540-552-8672.

Sincerely yours,

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.