Tom Bates Regional Goose Haven

Well, you know what I think of the ten acres of newly grassed, newly paved, newly fenced, newly using millions of gallons of water soon to be opened Tom Bates Regional Sports Complex (named after Berkeley's developer loving Mayor Tom). Did you know that Berkeley has a law that says public officials can't have anything named after them till 5 years after they die? Of course the shameful bit of back room dealing that brought us these sports fields was brokered by the East Bay Regional Park District who aren't bound by the same nutty rules as Berkeley, so Tom will get to enjoy his newly named field long before he pops off. And Bates, never one to miss an opportunity to capitalize on people's emotions is promoting naming the soon to be built animal shelter after Dona Spring, a woman whom he often treated with disdain in council meetings. This will of course require that Berkeley change it's facility naming code. Ho hum.

On the subject of the new playing fields - this is the area where some bright spark thought they might have seen a burrow which could have belonged to a ground nesting owl, but only might have and could have. This is the reason the Sierra Club and the Audobon Society pushed the agenda of fencing off 8 acres of Albany Landfill open space - space which was used by a multitude of humans, canines, birds and wildlife - to create the 'Sensitive Species' restoration project at the Albany Plateau. It was "I'll give you ten acres for playing fields, if you give us eight acres to fence off for a bird which no-one has ever actually seen there. But given how much we all hate dogs and the people who love them, this will work out just great" So now, Bates has an expanse of newly seeded lawn named after him which was the result of his own back room dealing. Love it.

And so of course do the geese. Now, the Parks District has had to place hundreds of little wooden posts with silver foil flags to deter the thousands of Canadian geese who just adore those little grass seedlings, depositing tons of green slimy muck behind them as they nibble. Yesterday evening I was pleased to hear dogs barking in the vicinity of the geese. But wait. No dogs in sight. Just a vast speaker system pumping out the sounds of a border collie.....

Geese don't like the scrub and wilderness of the Albany Landfill. Consequently it has become a haven for a huge array of birds. Unlike the Tom Bates Regional Goose Haven right next door.

Comments

[nina]

Tom Bates personal rabbit proof fence eh?