EFTA00837193.pdf

From: Daphne Wallace To: Jeffrey Epstein <[email protected]> Cc: ann rodriquez >, Rich Kahn Subject: Fwd: Groundworks Date: Mon, 04 Jan 2016 19:12:15 +0000 Attachments: 12.5'.JPG; 021.JPG Greetings Sir, Groundworks Palms sells the Canary Island Date Palms, 12 foot ct, 20-25 feet overall height for $7,200 each. Below for your review are a couple of photos of their stock as well as detailed information on how they harvest the palms, recommendations, cautions and after-care. Melissa lived on St. John, so she is familiar with LSJ: Palms: = 10 ® $7,200 = $ 72,000 Flat racks each 2 palms = 5 @ $5,518 = $ 27,590 Phyto certificate: = 2 @ $ 75 = $ 150 Tarps (flat racks) = 5@$ 100 =$ 500 Excise fees =5 ®$ 100=$ 500 Broker fees: = 2 @ $ 75 = $ 150 Trucking: = 5 @ $ 390 = $1,950 Tractor Head rental: 2 days = 2 @ $ 650 = $1,300 Island Tropical Estimated Costs: $104,140.00 Respectfully submitted, Daphne Forwarded message From: It 4 Groundworks - Melissa 0 < > Date: Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 10:18 AM Sub'ect: Groundworks To: Good morning Daphne, I appreciate your reaching out to us regarding the need for some new Canary Island Date Palms on Little St James. You may recall my telling you that I lived on St. John for 6 years; during that time I became associated with Groundworks which at the time also operated a nursery and landscape company on Tortola. We actually supplied and helped to install the Zahidi Date palms that are growing on the island. The last time George and I were there all of palms looked good but that was 8 or 10 years ago and I would love to get down that way to see them again. Your initial interest in Canariensis is understandable; the species provides the ultimate in aesthetics and stature but the cultural conditions on Little St. James make achieving a fully successful transplant problematic. The issues center on the species capacity to process excess airborne chlorides in a relatively low moisture environment and on the palms capacity to resume conduction after installation. I apologize in advance for the rather long winded discussion to follow but the maintenance of our integrity and professionalism requires that I give you enough information to make an informed decision. Whether I fill your order or am passed over for another vender, our 3 EFTA00837193 decades of experience handling shipments such as yours have taught us a lot and I need to share some of that experience with you. The Palms Canariensis of this maturity (you had inquired about (10) Canariensis at 12' Clear Trunk, 20 to 25' in overall height) are approximately 25 years old. This inventory cannot be sourced from a commercial nursery and must instead be located and then collected from existing landscapes where the palms were planted many years ago. There are just a handful of companies that locate a harvest mature Canariensis in Florida and universally, when an order such as yours is received the palms will be located, harvested and loaded for shipment to the island. These are known to us as being "Unprepared" palms and it is far less costly for us to fill orders using this method. On average, your provider will have invested roughly 48 man hours in acquiring, harvesting and loading each palm but more importantly (to the provider) all of the risk of transplant/shipping related loss is assumed by the client with no recourse of any kind nor with any additional steps taken to mitigate the risk of transplant losses. This is the least costly method of filling the order and this method is often utilized for palms being located and then shipped to sites in Florida. Most commonly, with these domestic transplants of otherwise unprepared inventory we see a transplant loss rate of between 10 to 20%. That is a calculation derived from a grouping average of many deliveries over an extended time frame but it is not to say that domestic losses cap at 20%; in truth and practice, on some orders no losses at all are suffered and on others we have seen as many as 50% of the palms die before establishing on site. That is domestically but where the palms are located then are harvested a loaded for export down island; the 10 days or so out of the ground (best case) exasperates the loss rates. In the case of an export order such as yours, our experiences have taught us that loading out unprepared inventory is not good business and we make every effort to inform our clients of the outsized risks being adopted in exchange for a savings up front. We will bid providing the palms both way (prepared and unprepared) and are happy to fill it either way provided that our client understands the limitations and risks involved. Risky Business It is important to understand that these palms are being located from older neighborhoods and are purchased from property owners who are willing to sell them off. That base lack of regard for the palm(s) usually means that we are harvesting palms that have not had benefit of regular irrigation or much (if any?) fertilization over the years. We know going in that it is likely that there is very little in the way of stored carbohydrates to service root regeneration and there is no capillary root system in place to maintain moisture levels that are vital to a successful transplant. When the palm is dug for transplant the primary root system is cut; the cut roots die back and the primary root system is temporarily eliminated as a means of servicing the palm. The natural reaction to the cutting of the primary root system is the initiation a regeneration of what is known as a capillary root system. The initiation of the capillary system is absolutely essential to the transplant and where it does not occur, the palm has not survived transplant. Low levels of carbohydrates a moisture disable the palms capacity to initiate a capillary root system often results in failed conduction which equals a dead palm tree. Post-harvest Nurturing During our decades transplanting this species, we have developed unique, proprietary therapies that act to restock the level of carbohydrates in the conductive tissue, initiate a capillary root system (that the palm can utilize to maintain moisture levels immediately after its arrival on site) and affect a pH match insuring that no pH imbalance interferes with functionality and acclimation to the new site. When palms are ordered "Prepared", we utilize palms that have been in nurturing at our nurseries and all that remains to be done is to adjust the pH of the moisture within the palm to EFTA00837194 the pH of the site's irrigation water. This comparison and adjustment is vitally important to achieving full functionality and we understand how to initiate it during the 45 days after the initial harvest. In total, this work acts to substantially mitigate the risk of transplant/shipping related losses and it substantially improves the palms performance during the initial period (first 6 months on site). Obviously, these enhanced performance characteristics dramatically improve the client's chances of achieving a fully successful transplant. After our many years working in the Virgin Islands we know first-hand what it means to lose big expensive palms on an island setting that requires huge investments to replace and our Prepared palms are the only ones we would ever plant in that kind of scenario. At our nurturing facilities we maintain in excess of 100 mature Canariensis in stock undergoing various stages of preparation. We harvest the palms and ship them to our facilities. A number of these will not survive the initial move and we absorb those that fail outright at our nursery (as opposed to seeing it happen on site) and all of those that survive the initial move are put through nurturing. When ready, this inventory ships with all of the benefits of post-transplant nurturing and it is from this inventory that we pull "Prepared" orders. I believe that ours is the largest collection of located Canariensis palms in holding at any facility or nursery in the United States and perhaps in the entire world. Our competition isn't willing to make the investments we do to maintain these extensive inventories of Specimen Canariensis but when we fill orders with a 3% or less loss rate we, and our clients, are reminded of exactly why we do what we do. As just one example of the client benefits, I am proud to tell you of a fairly recent shipment of 60 prepared 14/15' clear trunk Canariensis that we shipped from our Houston facility to Montenegro with a zero loss rate. These shipments averaged 47 days each on the ocean and our client did not have any losses. The preparation our Canariensis received is the reason why. Your needs You had inquired about (10) 12' clear trunk Canariensis. These palms will be shipped into a high pH/ high soluble chloride environment and must endure the rigors of ocean shipping and then on island handling. The palms will weigh approximately 13 to 14,000 pounds each when loaded and each palm will utilize 26' linear feet of deck space so you can expect to fit 2 palms on each 40' flat rack. There will be room on each flat rack for other smaller materials and we can help you with any or all of that but getting a 3rd palm on each trailer would mean causing damage to the nuts (The thicker area of aged petiole at the top of the trunk and just below the live fronds) and may cause the trailers to be overweight. The visual/aesthetic match rate on this order will be roughly 80%.The palms will all be collected from different properties and will be slightly different seedling variations of Canariensis. The various cultural and environmental circumstances under which the palms have individually grown result in aesthetic variations that disable the ability to get a super clean match but it will be pretty close. Provided you order the palms "Prepared" from Groundworks, you will have the ability to visit our nurturing facility and hand select all of the palms before loading/shipping and every palm will have the pH match initiated and be otherwise fully prepared to ship. If you choose to ship "Unprepared", we will do our very best to insure that you have a good experience but the only way to inspect the palms is to go to each location where they are growing. I wish I could honestly tell you otherwise but this method confers outsized risks that are unavoidable. It would not be truthful for me to assert that you won't have losses but you will save some money up front. As I said at the start, that was rather long winded but if you found the time to read it through, you are now fully informed and I am sending along proposals for Prepared and Unprepared inventory. Please let me know what questions you have and /or if there is any other information I can provide for you. I am doubly interested in serving your needs; not just for the business it represents but because I would be contributing to the beauty of a place that was a very important part of our lives and we would love to have a good reason to visit the VI. EFTA00837195 Presented with my compliments Et best wishes for the New Year; Ms. Melissa C. Nottingham Senior Vice President Groundworks of Palm Beach County Inc. www.datepalm.com EFTA00837196