1. Background.
A. General.
B. Doomed Grove overhanging Magazine Beach playing fields.
2. Phil Reports
3. Phil’s Supplemental Report.
4. Summary.
1. Background.
A. General.
Here is my marked up cropping of the best Massachusetts Department of Transportation photo of I90 and Magazine Beach, particularly the playing fields.
The markings are as follows:
I. The principal poison drainage area (swale) installed by Cambridge and the DCR to drain off poisons introduced into the previously clean Magazine Beach playing fields in the 2000's.
II. The boat dock of the Twentieth Century which was rendered useless in the 2000's by a bridge which prevented use by being incapable of handling vehicles with boats to get to the boat dock. The “improvements” continue to prevent access while making it more difficult for the Charles River White Geese to get to their food for most of the last 37 years at the Magazine Beach playing fields.
III. The other swale.
IV. The grove mentioned by Phil which just saw destruction of the two furthest trees from the playing fields.
V. The magnificent Willow which is also among the 56 mostly excellent trees the Cambridge City Council and the Mass. Dept. of Cons & Rec (DCR) want to destroy.
B. Doomed Grove overhanging Magazine Beach playing fields.
Several days ago, I noticed two trees with the dreaded orange marking of planned destruction in the doomed grove (IV above) which overhangs the western end of the Magazine Beach playing fields. The doomed trees were the furthest trees in the grove going west from the playing fields.
The attached photo is from June 2017. The playing fields are to the right. The two most doomed trees were to the far left.
I reported the marking to Phil.
He observed the situation several times.
He reported as follows concerning his view on Saturday, April 25.
2. Phil Reports
I took an early AM walk to MB today. The marked dead or dying (one was exuding sap) trunks have been removed from the grove. The reddish brown color of the heartwood confirms my thought that they are Eastern Cottonwoods, not poplars as the DCR [Department of Conservation and Recreation] inventory describes them.
[Phil reports on the eastern of the two poison drainage ditches (I above), which he accurately refers to as “swales”. The swale he refers to is the swale whose vegetation has now been repeatedly attacked by the Cambridge City Council’s Specified Absolute Dictator on the Charles River. Here is a photo after the first destruction. In the above photo, this swale is item I.]
Speaking of incompetence, the sodden fields have suffered heavy damage from recent grass cutting. There are deep gouges in the turf in a number of areas where it was shredded by the mower. The swale is deeply underwater, still. I would think the missing reeds (which are growing back vigorously) must have respired tons of water vapor inn’to the atmosphere each week. It was hardly ever wet underfoot in their area. I suppose I am one of the few people aware of this as [word lost] have prowled through them looking for little creatures’ habitats.
I recently got a copy of the very interesting book The Secret Life of Trees, which documents among other things how trees create microclimates with the large amounts of water vapor and oxygen they exhale every day. I had in mind the three giant old oaks cut down this month next to my dad’s house. One of the neighbors who is otherwise a nice fellow is happy they're gone because he didn’t like raking their leaves that blew into his yard! People amaze my sometimes and not in a positive way. But certainly the effusive growth of reeds similarly impacted its area.
The dock construction appears to be moving slowly. The gravel they put down to fill in the swampy area to the right of the footbridge is now largely under water too.
[Here is Phil’s photo of the boat dock work toward the end of July. This is point II in the area photo above. The bridge which has blocked and will continue to block access to the dock is the diagonal light brown area. I am working on a detailed analysis of the latest outrage.
[The SECRET plans which Phil found on the Internet call for creation of a 3 foot wall at the water line, yet another tactic in ramping up the continuing heartless starvation of the Charles River White Geese.]
3. Phil’s Supplemental Report.
[I asked him what he meant by the oozing of the sap.]
The oozing of sap meant the one tree was still alive, however weak it appeared externally. I imagine they removed these because of the liability situation, should one be stressed by the coming hurricane season winds and fall on some passer by.
4. Summary.
I will get into the nonsense of the boat dock, hopefully, quickly. It is a major writing task.
The sap issue clearly communicates that the DCR, contrary to the nonsense in their plans, as analyzed by me in my June 6, 2017, analysis of those plans, is stating that this is the end of the “dead or dying” trees. Thus, there is no question that future destruction, perhaps imminent, will be undisputedly as wanton as the destruction of hundreds of trees east of the BU Bridge in January 2106.
My analysis of the DCR plans to the Cambridge City Council is posted at http://focrwg.com/agenda1.html. Note in particular the threatened magnificent grove. Phil has always said that some of these need to be pruned. The story from the DCR has been the usual, confuse the concerned folks as much as possible. They have been all over the place as to how many they are going to destroy. I do not think they ever got down to 2.
As part of the usual nonsense, they put out nonsense that these 10 trees were 3, and that silly count was reflected in their supposed destruction count.
My video on the accomplished destruction is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTplCCEJP7o.
