Everywhere, everyday we see the world becoming less and less wild.  We see sprawling shopping malls, hotels, and unfilled homesites streching for miles.  As we pave over the areas the animals and plants once called home, we put them in zoos and say we have done something wonderful.  What happens when the zoos are no longer safe?  What happens when cities and towns and counties think that educational wildlife parks should make a profit or be closed?  What happens when animals who were born at these zoos are forced to live somewhere else because someone wants to put something, "more lucrative",  in it's place?  Don't let them change Cypress Gardens.  Please help us preserve this wonderful facility as is for future generations.  Say no to reducing the budget and laying off employees.

We the undersigned believe that Cypress Gardens has more to offer than you have given it credit for. More and more we lose wildlife and land to "more lucrative" endeavors, but what will be left for our children.  What will we pass on to them when the whole world is paved over.  In Cypress Gardens is a glimmer of hope. People come to Cypress to see an amazing collection of plants and animals that they can see nowhere else in the state. Taking away the staff and exhibits would be a huge mistake and a great loss for the County. Admissions are growing, please help it succeed, give it a chance. I quote a recent visitor to the gardens, "Well if it was just a garden and a boat ride, we probably wouldn't come back, you can do those things all over Charleston, but the animals are the reason my teenage children are willing to hang out with us all day.  To me that is priceless!"  Don't reduce the budget, don't lay off employees, don't put in another rental facility and give the people of Berkeley County a council and an attraction they can be proud of.