The following is about the people in the Seattle Parks Department that gas
geese, mismanage our urban bird and wildlife habitat and mismanage the Parks
department budget:

Margaret Parkinson wrote:

"I am with you, Martyn, about the Canada Geese. I saw several families at
the Fill yesterday and hoped so much that they would make it through the
molting season without the City and the Feds gassing them. I have been a
part of the protest against the insane killing and will be again this year
if they do it. I understand the Mayor said last year that the killing would
not take place this year. I sure hope he keeps to his word. "

My response:

No bird that lives in a Seattle Park will be safe until we get a Seattle
Parks Department that cares about nature and city officials that are better
public servants. Instead we have city officials that work for their
greatest self interest and the interest of the greatest number of cronies.

Everyone needs to know that the Seattle Superintendent of Parks Ken Bounds
is the son-in-law of one of the people in this state who wielded the most
power to harm the environment, former Senator Slade Gorton. Ken Bounds was
a crony of Greg Nickels 20 years ago in the Dept of Management and Budget
along with former City Light chief Gary Zarker. Now Bounds's Parks dept is
taking our $200 million Pro-Parks levy money and buying up all of city
lights abandoned properties including a number of old substations that I
suspect may be toxic sites, and old abandoned buildings that the Parks
department will now call "community centers". I believe the citizens
thought they would get more natural areas and ball fields.

Speaking of ballfields, I encourage all to attend the city council meeting
this Wednesday at the new city hall about whether to go ahead with the plan
to put 11 well lighted ballfields in Magnussen Park. This would come at the
expense of wildlife habitat and at enormous expense in tax dollars. It
would also come at great expense to surrounding property owners who will
lose their night view and associated property value to light pollution. The
manager that railroaded that project through, Herbye White, acted in
internal Parks Department meetings like he was getting a large kickback on
this and other expensive projects. Sign in to speak starting at 5:15pm.

The backgrounds of most of the managers that Superintendant Bounds hires are
in the military and none have any background or interest in nature. The
head of the "environmental learning centers", Charles Sablan, also former
military, is quoted as saying "I don't care about the critters. They can
live somewhere else." (exact quote) after he demanded a brush pile be
removed from a nature center and had been told that a garter snake might
live under it. When a citizen questioned him about spending $2000 to
dispose of some valued straw compost he told her "I don't care, it's not my
money". (many more amazing Parks manager quotes available on request) These
are the kind of people that are in charge of our city's natural areas and
the Parks Department budget. It is not surprising that they gas geese who
poop on their precious lawns.

It's time to demand that Mayor Nickels fire his old crony Ken Bounds and
hire someone that knows and loves nature. It's time to get the city council
to split the parks department into one department of community centers and
ball fields and another department of urban natural oases, otherwise
ballfield managers will continue to mismanage the natural areas that we
consider priceless and they consider valueless.

Then we can continue to post great bird sighting lists from Seattle parks.

Stewart Wechsler
West Seattle
mailto:ecostewart at quidnunc.net



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