Bob La Trémouille reports:
1. White Geese observed at Magazine Beach.
A. Background.
B. Sightings.
2. Matters of consideration.
A. 95% of Magazine Beach still barred to and from the Charles River.
B. Coming plans for destruction.
C. Training of the Charles River White Geese by 20 months of starvation tactics.
3. The Bumpy Memorial Goose Pond.
4. Clean up government, the banks of the Charles River and the destructive plans for the Charles River.
1. White Geese observed at Magazine Beach.
A. Background.
For quite some time, we have been getting occasional reports of White Geese being seen in the early morning in the eastern end of Magazine Beach.
I have viewed them there in increasing numbers over the past three weeks.
This is the area where Cambridge and the state bureacrats destroyed five healthy trees to put in an artificial puddle perhaps 20 feet from the Charles River. Once they put in their puddle, they had to put in a bridge. Since they put in a bridge, they advertised it as for bicycles, but made it dangerous for bikes. In recent weeks, the new, expensive pathway which replaced the inexpensive asphalt pathway and replaced wetlands has been washing away.
B. Sightings.
First I observed a momma, poppa and four adolescent babies at about 8 am on June 9. They were east of the bridge between the puddle and the Charles.
On June 15 at about 7:15 am, there were perhaps 20 geese, including a number of this year's babies, in the same area. They looked quite lovely and were enjoying the puddle.
Friday, June 23 at 6:55 am, it appeared that the entire gaggle was resting west of the bridge between the puddle and the Charles River. They did graze on the grass between the parking lot and the softball field. They went further from the river in this area than I have previously seen them. That was rather necessary because the area nearest the puddle is badly worn.
Access from the Charles was obtained in an area between the bridge and the Charles and in an area just to the west of that location which has been worn down.
2. Matters of consideration.
A few very major matters of consideration:
A. 95% of Magazine Beach still barred to and from the Charles River.
First and foremost, approximately 95% of Magazine Beach to which they had access is still barred to them by the bizarre designer bushes and by many other pieces of obstructive ground vegetation, none of which has ever been seen on the Charles River before.
Just as access to Magazine Beach from the Charles River is barred, access to the Charles River from Magazine Beach is barred. This is by a project which was launched with a media event of people swimming in the Charles River in a location where passage is now blocked over 95% of the frontage.
Swimming in the Charles? Nonsense!!
Concern for the environment and for animals in the environment? Nonsense.
Similarly, it is silly to think that access to a tiny part of Magazine Beach gives the Charles River White Geese access to the entire area.
These are prey animals. They are very much in danger from attack by carnivores such as dogs or irresponsible humans. Whenever they go on land from the Charles, they are very much aware of the possible dangers. They always keep a convenient route handy by which they can escape a predator by retreating to their beloved Charles River.
That wall of bizarre vegetation denies them retreat in about 95% of Magazine Beach.
B. Coming plans for destruction.
But it gets worse. The plans are yet in place to destroy all the grass at Mazazine Beach to put in grass and sprinklers. Cambridge and the state bureacrats want the sprinklers because they have been / are destroying wetlands and because the contractor lobby likes work.
C. Training of the Charles River White Geese by 20 months of starvation tactics.
Next, the Charles River White Geese have been trained by 20 months of starvation tactics. They have been trained that their 25 year feeding grounds is no longer their feeding grounds. This would explain why they only come in the morning instead of all times of the day, as they did in the past. They need to be untrained.
And they need their access restored. Everywhere.
3. The Bumpy Memorial Goose Pond.
But they did love that puddle.
I would suggest that the puddle be renamed the Bumpy Memorial Goose Pond to reflect the importance of the Charles River White Geese to the Charles River and to memorialize the political killing of their longtime leader in 2001. But also to reflect the fondness of the Charles River White Geese for the puddle.
The money has been spent. The Geese like the result. Memorialize them by naming the puddle for them.
4. Clean up government, the banks of the Charles River and the destructive plans for the Charles River.
Additionally, we need nine city councilors who are protecting the environment in Cambridge, rather than playing their political con game of destroying Cambridge's environment while claiming to be defending the world.
And we need to get rid of very destructive state and city bureacrats.
A nice start would be to move those bizarre designer bushes which are creating the bizarre starvation wall.
A good new location would be someplace where that vegetation makes sense. Danehy Park in West Cambridge comes to mind. It certainly makes no sense on the Charles River at Magazine Beach.
But first and foremost, the coming destruction must be cancelled. It is a strikingly silly waste of money.
Additionally, and by no means the least of considerations, interference with animal feeding must be ended.
Mankind and the wild have shared this area for the better part of a century. Mankind has no business destroying it.
