It surprised the local people that a company could go to such great lengths to save these olive trees, when everyone else was busy making money building houses.

Proving to the community that olive trees could be moved any time of year, made people realise that something indeed could be done. These trees were being chopped down throughout the year and waiting for the right time of year was not an option that was available.

And how was a venture such as ours to be financed? Would you pay an eskimo to shift melting snow from one area to another cooler place ? 

The cost of equipment hire to move trees was a barrier. The only way we could finance the tree moves was by selling them, to the very people, in whose name they were being destroyed; the house buyers, many of whom had come to the island to enjoy its natural, undisturbed beauty, and found instead the island being ruined.

Northern Cyprus is no longer "a corner of Earth touched by heaven" but rather "a corner of Earth destroyed by bulldozers". 

 

This is not the way to handle a tree that is older than our grand father.