[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Crystal Lake Park geese slaughtered

Tue Jun 23 16:39:00 UTC 2020

Thanks for your sympathetic and informative report about our geese, Debra

Isn’t all this just a reflection of what the development and evolution of human society/civilization has wrought. Where have all the animals gone? Which alive creatures are thriving—cockroaches? What has been the transformation of originally pristine(?) continents as human populations have in their expansion sought more space and safety for themselves? From birds to bisons to bees, to the loss of the fauna of Africa, in Europe, the western hemisphere, Asia. Yes, some of us struggle to keep what remains, “wilderness”, but it is a losing battle it seems; we can only slow the process down.

How will it all end?  Do we ever look beyond our own short lifetimes?

—mkb

On Jun 23, 2020, at 9:27 AM, Debra Schrishuhn via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

It does indeed.

As special as Crystal Lake Park is in many ways, it is artificial, degraded, and as you say, fragmented habitat.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 23, 2020, at 9:11 AM, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com<mailto:jbw292002 at gmail.com>> wrote:

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.

John Wason

On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 5:21 AM Debra Schrishuhn via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

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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