[Peace-discuss] Crystal Lake Park geese slaughtered

[Debra Schrishuhn]

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.

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.

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.

Debra Schrishuhn, birder and advocate for the unrepresented


P.S. Thanks and condolences to all who stood up for the geese and opposed
UPD's deceptive and ill-considered violence
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