NEWS

Get To Know Our District Committees: Little Cayman

Meet Gregory McTaggart, Little Cayman District Committee Chairperson.  Learn more about his favorite places to travel, National Trust sites, and his passion for being a member of the National Trust for the Cayman Islands.

Check out his interview below.

1. Why did you join the National Trust? I have been a Life Member since the 1990s. The Trust was really the first statutory organisation aimed at preserving and protecting all things Caymanian, culturally, architecturally, and environmentally. We’ve lost so much, but would have lost much more without the Trust.
2. What would you like to see for your district? A development plan for Little Cayman that is part of the National Development Plan that recognises the special nature of this island and is geared to preserving what is a national asset and driven by the wishes and desires of the community, not simply external development interests. And protection for Owen Island so that it is kept in its natural, undeveloped state in perpetuity.
3. What is your favourite memory of the National Trust? Ha! Well, I’ve got some very strong memories of the Trust to say the least. But I suppose in all the various volunteering activities surrounding being associated with the Trust, seeing baby sea turtles emerge from the sand is a very positive, vivid memory that is actually quite recent and the fact that it took so long to see does say some things about our progress on conservation, negative as well as positive.
4. What is your favourite activity to support the National Trust? Anything to do with advancing the Trust’s mission here on Little Cayman.
5. What is your favourite NTCI site or programme? The Gladys Howard Visitors Centre and Booby Pond and Nature Reserve.
6. What is your favourite book? My favourite author is Carl Hiaasen.
7. What is your favourite place to travel to? I made a solo roadtrip across Western Australia from Perth to the Northwest Cape and then to Broom. I saw the stromatolites at the Shark Bay World Heritage site, snorkelled the India Ocean and saw the magnificent desolation of the Pilbara and its colossal exploitation by iron ore mining among many things. I then took the Ghan (train) across the centre of the continent from Darwin to Adelaide, stopping in Alice Springs. Seeing the aboriginal people there and their displacement from their traditional life had a profound effect on me. I suppose my second favourite is another roadtrip, driving the Dempster Highway through the Yukon and North West Territories of Canada through the Klondike gold fields, across the Arctic Circle to the Mackenzie River Delta. Again, the ecological devastation of the gold mining in such a remote place and so long ago was striking. And interacting with the indigenous people was almost transcendental beside my western life experiences to that point.
8. What is the best advice or words of wisdom you have received? I’ve never really had a “Yoda” moment although I’ve had many amazing people help me throughout my lifetime and who I’ve tried to emulate. I like to keep in mind quotes from historical figures though and one of my favourites is attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Others have expressed the sentiment but I like his version the best, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”