1. MassDot.
2. Context.
3. Coming.
1. MassDot.
On December 27, 2011, I received the following email from MassDOT:
************
Dear Robert:
Thank you for contacting the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) regarding the Boston University Bridge Rehabilitation Project.
This project is substantially complete. Additional punch list item work is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2011 and tree plantings will be completed in the spring of 2012. For additional information on the project, please visit the project website at www.mass.gov/massdot/charlesriverbirdges .
Once again, thank you for your email. Please contact MassDOT if you have additional questions, comments or if we can be of further assistance.
-Stephanie
Stephanie Boundy
Public Outreach Coordinator
Massachusetts Department of Transportation
2. Context.
This is very major as far as the Charles River White Geese are concerned.
This project, like so many involving Cambridge and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation was needlessly destructive to the environment and to the animals living in the environment.
They have declared they do not want animals living on the Charles River Basin. Their euphemism is “parkland” with no animals as part of the definition. Over the past decade plus, they have taken major steps to kill off or drive away resident animals.
The mass killing of animals at Alewife as part of that bizarre project is by no means an isolated incident. That is the mentality of the DCR and Cambridge.
MassDOT took over the BU Bridge project by legislative edict as the legislature has been reducing the areas subjected to the DCR.
MassDOT would appear to have been crucial in killing / tabling a Cambridge proposal for a new highway in and abutting the Charles because of its environmental destructiveness.
The mess that has been needlessly created as part of needless destruction of the BU Bridge was something MassDOT inherited by order of the legislature.
Significant parts of the nesting area of the Charles River White Geese have been destroyed. This area is the only significant part of the habitat of the Charles River White Geese which has not been destroyed by Cambridge and the DCR during the past decade and the DCR has made the project as destructive as could be imagined.
DCR agents, starting in 2003 destroyed almost all ground vegetation between the BU Bridge and the BU Boathouse to the east, the area where the Charles River White Geese have been confined.
The ground vegetation not destroyed was exactly where the DCR intended to destroy as part of the BU Bridge project.
I have previously posted photos of the mess at http://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/photo-record-september-2011-destruction.html. The very limited areas not destroyed can better be explained as a result of inability to exactly predict what would be destroyed by the BU Bridge project.
As shown in the photos, the extension destroying almost all of the northern part of the nesting area is just another example of heartless animal abuse by the DCR.
The portion by the BU Bridge was pretty much necessary.
3. Coming.
Now the state needs to undo its destruction.
The DCR’s description of its plans for the area are strikingly similar to their plans in 1999 when, as the DCR’s agent, Boston University first destroyed the area. They started the work before a public hearing by the Cambridge Conservation Commission on the matter. They finished the work before they could legally start it. Boston University lied for six months that they did the work until the Cambridge Conservation Commission condemned them for it.
Then, the DCR through BU destroyed a balance, viable ecosystem, a refuge of nature in the middle of the city.
The DCR put in silly grass and “native” Dutch flowers, plus a pathway of ashes. The stuff proceeded to wash into the Charles. Their “park” went nearly unused as a park but it was heavily used by the animals who had not been driven away.
Roy Bercaw went to the goose meadow in April 2000. He recorded what he saw. It is posted at http://enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com/2007/07/friends-of-charles-river-white-geese.html. [Note: His posting of the video was in 2007. Roy, apparently, did not look at his content well enough in his description. April 2000 is stated in the video.]
What has been done this time is a lot worse than in 1999. Close look at Roy’s video will show a lot of ground vegetation which has been destroyed that was not destroyed in 1999, and it has not regrown, indicating poisoning.
The vibrancy of the small areas not destroyed this time show exactly how excellent this area is when not attacked by unfit state / city employees and their agents.
The reality is, as can be seen in the repeated environmental destruction on the Charles River related to bizarre projects and to bizarre additions to responsible projects, the DCR not fit for its responsibilities. DCR and Cambridge in their animal and tree pogrom at Alewife as part of that bizarre project have further demonstrated their lack of fitness to manage the environment.
More to come.
