Bob La Trémouille reports:
I have posted the following on both the Governor and the MassDOT sites in their email receptacles, at 9:20 and 9:21 am, 12/20/09.
It should be noted that, in addition to creating this outrage, the City of Cambridge has the nerve to have a delegate at the environmental congress. Council Davis, the delegate, is one of the most environmentally destructive members of an environmentally very bad city council.
Archie Mazmanian advises me that the Secretary and CEO spells his name "Mullan" rather than "Mullen." Thank you Archie. I also note that in my attempts to be concise, I have omitted two other points which I usually include. I regret all three errors, but hopefully it was readable, and, MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY, did the job.
Secretary and CEO Jeff Mullen
MassDOT
PLEASE TRANSMIT COPY TO WHOMEVER IS IN A POSITION TO REACT
RE: Wildlife Emergency at the BU Bridge Repair Construction Site
Dear Mr. Mullen:
You have an environmental crisis forced on you by the environmentally reprehensible people at DCR and the City of Cambridge.
I am talking to the construction site / goose habitat east of the BU Bridge in Cambridge.
Since 2000, DCR has constantly reaffirmed that they have no intention to harm the beautiful and valuable nearly 30 year native Charles River White Geese. They and Cambridge have repeatedly proven these claims false. Cambridge goes even farther in their lies about their environmental destructiveness.
The DCR and Cambridge want no animal life living on or visiting the Charles River between the Watertown Dam and the Harbor. They have implemented this vile goal with heartless abuse of the Charles River White Geese.
For nearly 30 years, Charles River White Geese have lived in the area east of the BU Bridge. They have nested there and they have gone there for protection against the elements.
The DCR turned this into a construction zone with maximum abuse aimed at the Charles River White Geese.
Perhaps half of the construction zone is unnecessary destruction of vegetation and habitat. The portion next to the Memorial Drive ramp is inexcuseable. The parking could easily have been placed under Memorial Drive. This area is commonly pretty empty.
Additionally, responsible behavior would have allowed the Charles River White Geese access to and feeding rights at Magazine Beach where they have fed for most of the past 30 years.
This is walled off with a bizarre wall of introduced bushes which serve no viable function except to starve the geese. Cambridge joins the DCR in contempt for the valuable native vegetation they destroy there. The Boston Conservation Commission has applied sanctions to the DCR for destroying the same vegetation on the Boston side.
Cambridge and the DCR have destroyed grass which survived for the better part of a century and replaced it with sickly stuff that needs poisons. They have decreased the size of the playing fields for a drainage system to drain off poisons which should not be used and which will flow into the Charles in heavy weather.
East of the BU Bridge, the DCR has destroyed pretty much all of the ground vegetation between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse. Their construction zone destroyed pretty much what they did not destroy in the previous four years.
I beg of you.
Control the plows in that inexcusably large construction zone.
It seems certain that, if the DCR or Cambridge were involved, they would dump the snow on top of the quarter of the area which is less destroyed habitat.
Please keep the plowed snow out of the tiny area which is the only remnants of the Charles River White Geese’s mile long habitat.
Dump it in the area WHICH SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Dump it in that part of the construction zone next to the on ramp.
Thank you in advance for your courtesy.
You have the very great disadvantage of dealing with truly reprehensible people at the DCR and Cambridge. Cambridge has been called “reprehensible” by judge in the civil rights case of Monteiro v. Cambridge. There rather than destroying beautiful valuable animals, according to judge and jury, they destroyed the life of a black woman department head in retaliation for her filing a civil rights complaint.
Decent people should not have the situation you have had forced on you east of the BU Bridge.
But if all people were decent, the powers that be in Cambridge and the DCR would be removed.
Cy: Governor Patrick
