Bob La Trémouille reports.
On Wednesday, July 26, in the early evening, the Department of Conservation and Recreation held a public meeting, among other things, to give people the false impression of how responsible they are.
DCR Commissioner Stephen H. Burrington chaired.
The open house was conducted at a boat club near Charles Circle off Beach Hill in Boston.
It appeared that almost all members of the public present were people brought by Friends of the White Geese and people from the environmentally destructive Esplanade Association. The Esplanade Association is joing with the misnamed Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and with the DCR in their ongoing fight to destroy all animal life they can get away with destroying on the banks of the Charles River.
The meeting was moderated by DCR Commissioner Stephen H. Burrington.
Barrington apparently was previously associated with an “environmental” group which has been involved on the Charles River. These “environmental defenders” have recently been bragging about a “victory” over Boston University. They “forced” Boston University to move a massive “replacement” for Boston University’s SECOND Charles River Boathouse. None of these “victors” have ever meaningfully explained why Boston University has any need for a SECOND large boathouse, explained why the existing not overly large boathouse meaningfully needs to be replaced, or explained why it cannot be replaced in place. Naturally the existing boathouse is in an out of the way location surrounded by the BU Campus and the BU Bridge, and the “compromise” is prime Esplanade land in a very valuable PUBLIC location.
Wednesday night was not a great deal different.
Among others, Barrington, presented his a new maintenance supervisor for this region. The new person transferred from the rural component of the department to the urban component of the department. The new person was quite surprised at the reaction of people in his new building to seeing a wild turkey nearby. He apparently was unaware that this part of the agency is aggressively fighting to destroy all animal life it can get away with on the Charles or probably other places.
The new maintenance supervisor bragged on the DCR’s vegetation management program in which vegetation is left a foot high near rivers.
Barrington shouted me down when I attempted to find out how recently the program had been implemented since the prior Friday, July 21, their representatives (obviously the Charles River Conservancy) had scalped all vegetation abutting the Charles between the BU Bridge and the Mass. Ave. Bridge in Cambridge except where the White Geese live.
This casual destruction of needed vegetation is now done twice a year throughout Cambridge and Brighton because the DCR and their representatives have contempt for the environment and for their own supposed policies. The DCR in reality wants the Charles River to look like a lawn, not like a river.
The shouting down by Barrington combined with the very real existence of the behavior shows exactly how high environmental contempt goes in the DCR.
The maintenance manager seems like a good man. I hope he finds a new job with an entity that deserves his respect.
