In October, 2007, we reported on an injured Canada goose found feeding along the Charles River. The goose's right foot was missing and it seemed in pain when it tried to stand or walk. It was, however, eating, with much help from its friends at WBZ.
After discussion about whether to remove it, we took it to Maple Farm Sanctuary in Mendon, MA. The goose spent several weeks eating and resting, and in December we released it at the goose meadow, where it seemed to know some of the other geese. It stayed and was fed with the others there.
(As readers of the blog know, the Charles River Urban Wilds Initiative keeps the Charles River White Geese, confined to the grassless goose meadow since September, 2004, from starvation. With the DCR's and Cambridge's campaign against all waterfowl on the river, this means mallard ducks and Canada geese, including several injured ones, also get food.)
On July 20, 2009 I saw a footless Canada feeding near the Weeks Footbridge, and have tried to confirm that it's the injured one from 2007. Instead what I learned from Cheri at Maple Farm Sanctuary is that US Fish and Wildlife banding of Canadas has led to numerous spontaneous amputations of the foot. If the band doesn't allow for growth and proper circulation, the foot dies and falls off. Cheri saw about fifteen Canadas with this injury in the winter of 2007-08.
Her husband saw something fall off one of the migrating Canadas overhead that winter. The object he retrieved was its foot, with band. Cheri spoke with officials at US F&W, who may have acted to stop the cruelty. She's seen fewer geese with this injury this past winter.
So the goose I saw July 20 may or may not be the injured one from 2007. There are many more out there, too many to tell. In any case this goose, too, was continuing to feed.
Cheri (www.maplefarmsanctuary.org) sends her greetings to readers of this blog.
Marilyn Wellons
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
“A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT”
Archie Mazmanian reports.
1. Harvard’s Secret (And Not So Secret) Allston Land Purchases.
2. Harvard’s Endowment Grows.
3. Why Allston?
4. “Harvard In Allston” Exhibit.
5. Harvard Adds To Institutional Assaults On Allston.
6. Harvard’s Major Investments In Science.
7. Harvard Seeks Urban Ring Connections.
8. Charles River Crossing, Other Impediments, To Southern Tier.
9. Harvard’s Campus In 2050!
This title might remind moviegoers of Robert Redford’s 1992 film of that name. I use it here to describe Harvard University’s campus in 2050.
1. Harvard’s Secret (And Not So Secret) Allston Land Purchases.
Google searches reveal some of the mysteries of Harvard’s land acquisitions in Allston. However, the picture is clouded as Harvard has long been engaged in long range planning for its future in Allston.
In 1997, Harvard disclosed that it had secretly accumulated 52 acres of land in Allston, 14 parcels located in commercial/industrial zoning districts. A 2001 Harvard Magazine article makes reference to Harvard having acquired 100 acres in Allston; but it is not clear whether this included or was in addition to the earlier secret acquisition. The article does disclose Harvard’s “wish list” including “graduate-student housing, a museum, conceivably a whole new campus for some of the landlocked professional schools in Cambridge.” Then Harvard President Rudenstine “proposed allocating a total of $500 million to the project over the next five years.” This funding would come from Harvard’s endowment that exceeded $19 billion as of June 30, 2000. The article noted that “if endowment returns diminished, or became negative, the proposed five-year spending could be slowed.”
2. Harvard’s Endowment Grows.
Harvard’s endowment returns continued to grow to about $36.9 billion as of June 2008, before the financial crises later that year, with the endowment now rumored to have declined to $26 billion. [“Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” comes to mind for some reason.] So Harvard was well positioned to continue funding its Allston project over such five-year period. What is not clear is the extent to which Harvard increased its Allston real estate holdings that may presently comprise 350 acres (not counting the Beacon Rail Yards approximately 600 acres that Harvard has acquired the underlying rights in).
3. Why Allston?
Harvard would have preferred to expand in Cambridge, but as noted by spokesperson Kathy Spiegelman (Harv. L. Bull., Summer 2002) “[s]ince most of the campus in Cambridge is surrounded by residential neighborhoods, and displacement of those neighborhoods was not in the university’s interests, or in the realm of possibility, it was necessary to look to other places.”
4. “Harvard In Allston” Exhibit.
The Harvard Gazette of June 8, 2006, features “Harvard takes first Allston steps, refines master plans” by Lauren M. Marshall and B. D. Colen of the Harvard News Office that refers to Harvard’s dealings with Allston communities regarding its then openly proposed Allston campus, a 50-year master plan Harvard was developing. “To that end, the University opened the ‘Harvard in Allston’ exhibit room in the Holyoke Center arcade in October 2005.” The article does not disclose the surreptitious steps taken by Harvard over several decades in its long range planning that resulted in the acquisition of so many acres of land in Allston, a story that remains to be told.
5. Harvard Adds To Institutional Assaults On Allston.
Several years ago, Harvard had built graduate-student housing along the Charles River in Allston. Harvard also recently acquired the Guest Quarters Hotel adjoining the MA Turnpike Extension Allston ramps. Harvard had earlier discussed plans for a museum in Allston. Community activists in Allston (and Brighton) had for years been battling the impacts of expansions of Boston University and Boston College into their neighborhoods. Now these activists have to face the giant Harvard with its much deeper pockets, substantially more than BU and BC combined, with a much more ambitious project, an Allston campus of some 250 acres.
6. Harvard’s Major Investments In Science.
Harvard developed plans for a major science center in Allston and work on the foundations started. However, because of current financial problems, further development of this project beyond completion of the foundations is questionable. Allston residents are concerned that Harvard’s delays in the development of its extensive Allston holdings will negatively impact their neighborhoods.
7. Harvard Seeks Urban Ring Connections.
This science center was to be a significant part of Harvard’s long range investment in science, from Cambridge to Allston to the Longwood Medical Area (LMA), so critical to the economy of the Greater Boston area. In 2005 Harvard openly “wanted in” on Phase 2 of the Urban Ring for a connection to its proposed Allston campus that would also connect with Harvard’s interests in Cambridge and the LMA. As a result, Harvard became a stakeholder in the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) that has been addressing the Urban Ring project. This resulted in a delay of the Phase 2 process. Why Harvard, with presumably its long range plans for Allston underway, waited so long is not clear, even though surely it was long clear to Harvard that proper public transit would be required to service its proposed Allston campus. (Recall that decades earlier the A Branch of the Green Line that had serviced Allston and Brighton had been shut down, replaced with grossly inadequate cross-town buses.) Perhaps Harvard was continuing with secret acquisitions of land in Allston and was concerned that “going public” too early might inflate prices.
In any event, Harvard quite quickly came up with a lengthy tunnel proposal for Phase 2 of the Urban Ring that would accommodate connections between the LMA, Harvard’s proposed Allston campus and Harvard Square. However, the costs involved would be much greater than federal and state funding that might be available, such that the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) did not ““approve”” this long tunnel. (In fact, because of funding problems, EOT currently has dropped the shorter tunnel it had proposed for the LMA/Fenway/Academies area.)
8. Charles River Crossing, Other Impediments, To Southern Tier.
Phase 2's Charles River crossing is a major impediment to what is now referred to by EOT in its recently filed Notice of Project Change (NPC) for Phase 2 as the “Southern Tier” of the Urban Ring that includes the LMA/Fenway/Academies area, the BU Bridge area and Harvard’s proposed Allston campus. With Harvard’s deferral of development of its Allston science center and other aspects of such campus added to the Charles River crossing problems, the issues facing the Southern Tier continue unresolved.
9. Harvard’s Campus In 2050!
But let’s jump ahead to the year 2050, by which time many of these issues may be resolved. Harvard’s campus in Allston may exceed in size its Cambridge campus. The May 20, 2004 issue of the Harvard Gazette includes an article titled “Harvard faculty brings Allston into focus” with “A vision of Harvard a half-century from now” as considered by Harvard faculty task forces on “Allston’s potential from the perspective of Harvard faculty …….” [Note: These task forces did not include members from Allston communities.] The article references 200 acres of land in Allston that “Harvard is in a unique position to think very long range, laying the framework today for the Harvard of decades from now as both sides of the Charles River merge into one campus.” Professor Dennis Thompson, chair of one of these faculty task forces, is quoted: “We do not want to establish a satellite campus in Allston, but rather to create a single campus in which the [Charles] river is an attractive center rather than a forbidding obstacle.”
So just imagine, then, in 2050, Harvard’s description of its single, consolidated campus with the words: A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT.” How modest.
By 2050, the current concerns of Allston residents and others impacted by Harvard’s land acquisitions and decades of development may long be forgotten just as many over so many years impacted by the Big Dig may have forgotten their many years of inconveniences with its eventually successful Charles River crossing. Hopefully, the Urban Ring’s Phase 2 Charles River crossing will also prove to be successful, wherever it may be located. If the Charles River White Geese Blog remains viable in 2050, perhaps the public’s interests in protecting the Charles River will continue, although I wouldn’t expect Harvard students to be fly-fishing –– or swimming - in the center of Harvard’s campus that the Charles River happens to run through.
1. Harvard’s Secret (And Not So Secret) Allston Land Purchases.
2. Harvard’s Endowment Grows.
3. Why Allston?
4. “Harvard In Allston” Exhibit.
5. Harvard Adds To Institutional Assaults On Allston.
6. Harvard’s Major Investments In Science.
7. Harvard Seeks Urban Ring Connections.
8. Charles River Crossing, Other Impediments, To Southern Tier.
9. Harvard’s Campus In 2050!
This title might remind moviegoers of Robert Redford’s 1992 film of that name. I use it here to describe Harvard University’s campus in 2050.
1. Harvard’s Secret (And Not So Secret) Allston Land Purchases.
Google searches reveal some of the mysteries of Harvard’s land acquisitions in Allston. However, the picture is clouded as Harvard has long been engaged in long range planning for its future in Allston.
In 1997, Harvard disclosed that it had secretly accumulated 52 acres of land in Allston, 14 parcels located in commercial/industrial zoning districts. A 2001 Harvard Magazine article makes reference to Harvard having acquired 100 acres in Allston; but it is not clear whether this included or was in addition to the earlier secret acquisition. The article does disclose Harvard’s “wish list” including “graduate-student housing, a museum, conceivably a whole new campus for some of the landlocked professional schools in Cambridge.” Then Harvard President Rudenstine “proposed allocating a total of $500 million to the project over the next five years.” This funding would come from Harvard’s endowment that exceeded $19 billion as of June 30, 2000. The article noted that “if endowment returns diminished, or became negative, the proposed five-year spending could be slowed.”
2. Harvard’s Endowment Grows.
Harvard’s endowment returns continued to grow to about $36.9 billion as of June 2008, before the financial crises later that year, with the endowment now rumored to have declined to $26 billion. [“Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” comes to mind for some reason.] So Harvard was well positioned to continue funding its Allston project over such five-year period. What is not clear is the extent to which Harvard increased its Allston real estate holdings that may presently comprise 350 acres (not counting the Beacon Rail Yards approximately 600 acres that Harvard has acquired the underlying rights in).
3. Why Allston?
Harvard would have preferred to expand in Cambridge, but as noted by spokesperson Kathy Spiegelman (Harv. L. Bull., Summer 2002) “[s]ince most of the campus in Cambridge is surrounded by residential neighborhoods, and displacement of those neighborhoods was not in the university’s interests, or in the realm of possibility, it was necessary to look to other places.”
4. “Harvard In Allston” Exhibit.
The Harvard Gazette of June 8, 2006, features “Harvard takes first Allston steps, refines master plans” by Lauren M. Marshall and B. D. Colen of the Harvard News Office that refers to Harvard’s dealings with Allston communities regarding its then openly proposed Allston campus, a 50-year master plan Harvard was developing. “To that end, the University opened the ‘Harvard in Allston’ exhibit room in the Holyoke Center arcade in October 2005.” The article does not disclose the surreptitious steps taken by Harvard over several decades in its long range planning that resulted in the acquisition of so many acres of land in Allston, a story that remains to be told.
5. Harvard Adds To Institutional Assaults On Allston.
Several years ago, Harvard had built graduate-student housing along the Charles River in Allston. Harvard also recently acquired the Guest Quarters Hotel adjoining the MA Turnpike Extension Allston ramps. Harvard had earlier discussed plans for a museum in Allston. Community activists in Allston (and Brighton) had for years been battling the impacts of expansions of Boston University and Boston College into their neighborhoods. Now these activists have to face the giant Harvard with its much deeper pockets, substantially more than BU and BC combined, with a much more ambitious project, an Allston campus of some 250 acres.
6. Harvard’s Major Investments In Science.
Harvard developed plans for a major science center in Allston and work on the foundations started. However, because of current financial problems, further development of this project beyond completion of the foundations is questionable. Allston residents are concerned that Harvard’s delays in the development of its extensive Allston holdings will negatively impact their neighborhoods.
7. Harvard Seeks Urban Ring Connections.
This science center was to be a significant part of Harvard’s long range investment in science, from Cambridge to Allston to the Longwood Medical Area (LMA), so critical to the economy of the Greater Boston area. In 2005 Harvard openly “wanted in” on Phase 2 of the Urban Ring for a connection to its proposed Allston campus that would also connect with Harvard’s interests in Cambridge and the LMA. As a result, Harvard became a stakeholder in the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) that has been addressing the Urban Ring project. This resulted in a delay of the Phase 2 process. Why Harvard, with presumably its long range plans for Allston underway, waited so long is not clear, even though surely it was long clear to Harvard that proper public transit would be required to service its proposed Allston campus. (Recall that decades earlier the A Branch of the Green Line that had serviced Allston and Brighton had been shut down, replaced with grossly inadequate cross-town buses.) Perhaps Harvard was continuing with secret acquisitions of land in Allston and was concerned that “going public” too early might inflate prices.
In any event, Harvard quite quickly came up with a lengthy tunnel proposal for Phase 2 of the Urban Ring that would accommodate connections between the LMA, Harvard’s proposed Allston campus and Harvard Square. However, the costs involved would be much greater than federal and state funding that might be available, such that the Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) did not ““approve”” this long tunnel. (In fact, because of funding problems, EOT currently has dropped the shorter tunnel it had proposed for the LMA/Fenway/Academies area.)
8. Charles River Crossing, Other Impediments, To Southern Tier.
Phase 2's Charles River crossing is a major impediment to what is now referred to by EOT in its recently filed Notice of Project Change (NPC) for Phase 2 as the “Southern Tier” of the Urban Ring that includes the LMA/Fenway/Academies area, the BU Bridge area and Harvard’s proposed Allston campus. With Harvard’s deferral of development of its Allston science center and other aspects of such campus added to the Charles River crossing problems, the issues facing the Southern Tier continue unresolved.
9. Harvard’s Campus In 2050!
But let’s jump ahead to the year 2050, by which time many of these issues may be resolved. Harvard’s campus in Allston may exceed in size its Cambridge campus. The May 20, 2004 issue of the Harvard Gazette includes an article titled “Harvard faculty brings Allston into focus” with “A vision of Harvard a half-century from now” as considered by Harvard faculty task forces on “Allston’s potential from the perspective of Harvard faculty …….” [Note: These task forces did not include members from Allston communities.] The article references 200 acres of land in Allston that “Harvard is in a unique position to think very long range, laying the framework today for the Harvard of decades from now as both sides of the Charles River merge into one campus.” Professor Dennis Thompson, chair of one of these faculty task forces, is quoted: “We do not want to establish a satellite campus in Allston, but rather to create a single campus in which the [Charles] river is an attractive center rather than a forbidding obstacle.”
So just imagine, then, in 2050, Harvard’s description of its single, consolidated campus with the words: A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT.” How modest.
By 2050, the current concerns of Allston residents and others impacted by Harvard’s land acquisitions and decades of development may long be forgotten just as many over so many years impacted by the Big Dig may have forgotten their many years of inconveniences with its eventually successful Charles River crossing. Hopefully, the Urban Ring’s Phase 2 Charles River crossing will also prove to be successful, wherever it may be located. If the Charles River White Geese Blog remains viable in 2050, perhaps the public’s interests in protecting the Charles River will continue, although I wouldn’t expect Harvard students to be fly-fishing –– or swimming - in the center of Harvard’s campus that the Charles River happens to run through.
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