<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">It does indeed. <div><br></div><div>As special as Crystal Lake Park is in many ways, it is artificial, degraded, and as you say, fragmented habitat.<br><br><div id="AppleMailSignature">Sent from my iPhone</div><div><br>On Jun 23, 2020, at 9:11 AM, John W. <<a href="mailto:jbw292002@gmail.com">jbw292002@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br><div>It strikes me that this "goose harvest" to maintain "ecological balance" in an inherently unbalanced and fragmented ecosystem is a microcosm of pretty much everything that humans have been doing throughout most of the world for the past couple hundred years or so. Cf. the killing of bees by the billions, to be then replaced by "mechanical bees" of some Frankensteinian sort. The mind boggles.</div><div><br></div><div>John Wason</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 5:21 AM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace <<a href="mailto:peace@lists.chambana.net">peace@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">As you all know by now, at 5:30 Monday morning, the Urbana Park District had USDA
round up and gas to death over 100 Canada geese and goslings for their crimes
of being messy, inconveniencing park visitors who apparently want a goose-free
experience, and being attracted to habitat that UPD created and continues to
maintain. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Some birders supported the slaughter to restore
"ecological balance" to an urban park that is inherently unbalanced
as the result of a partially dammed stream surrounded by gently sloped banks
cleared of brush and planted with non-native lawn grasses mowed weekly. Some
birders didn't like the noise of the gregarious goose voices competing with the
vehicular traffic, hospital emergency campus, and mini-malls surrounding the
park. Some birders are, well, just snobs, valuing their serious pseudo-pristine
bird walks looking for avian rarities and occasional visitors to the middle of
a bustling college town, over the easy-to-spot and easy-to-identify Canada
geese, ever present and reliable denizens of Crystal Lake Park.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Just as conservationist Aldo Leopold bemoaned that Illinois
had been made safe for soybeans, Crystal Lake Park has been temporarily ridded
of its (by some) unwanted geese. Geese will return, as nature abhors a vacuum.
The twin cities of Champaign-Urbana have over 50 retention ponds with gently
sloping banks surrounded by manicured lawns, relatively free of predators.
Geese will return because UPD has not reduced attractive habitat or done
anything to manage the goose population outside the park bounds. Geese will
return and the cycle of human violence--variously euphemized as a "charity
harvest" and "mercy killing"-- will repeat unless UPD is held
accountable for its irresponsible management of city public spaces.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Debra Schrishuhn, birder and
advocate for the unrepresented</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">P.S. Thanks and condolences to all who stood up for the geese and opposed UPD's deceptive and ill-considered violence<br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span></span></span></p>
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