This is my reply to Stan Olson of Abbotsford. His response to my posting on Tweeters was sent a short time ago.
Barbara Fysh, Abbotsford, BC
email: raybar99 at aol.com


Hi, Stan,
Very glad to get your email and report on "the other side of the
story". Now, the news report I was referring to occurred last
week on BCTV, not a web site, and I haven't seen the site you're
referring to.....let me know what that is, if you would, please.

I will indeed post the info you gave in your email to the
Tweeters list. As well, just last Friday, Dec. 3, there was an
article in the Abbotsford Times, which mentions a Kevin
Sinclair, who "lives with his family on Judson Lake which
straddles the border between Canada and the United States." The
article further states that "In the last five years, close to
1,500 carcasses of the large migratory birds were found on both
sides of the border, dead from lead poisoning. Last year the
carcass tally in the Whatcom County and Abbotsford area was
almost 400. . ." Furthermore, so goes the article, under the
byline of Christina Toth, CToth at abbotsfordtimes.com, it is
stated that "both the Canadian Wildlife Service and the WA state
Fisheries and Wildlife Service have been searching for the
source of the lead shot that the birds swallow to digest their
food. . ." And that "Sinclair wants the CWS to pressure
Fisheries and Wildlife to core sample the northwest corner of
the lake on the U.S. side, which is where he suspects (sic)
contains a lot of shot and which is where the swans are
congretating, he said."

The executive director of the Trumpeter Swan Society, based in
the U.S., Ruth Shea, says the CWS "took 227 core samples from
the lake in April but found just seven lead pellets. . .That's
not a very high density. . ."

And finally, the article mentions their "adopt-a-swan program"
and asks for donations "to "pay for downloading transmitter
information, other equipment and the necropsies performed on
hundreds of swans". Also, that "the society is covering the
costs of a retired biologist who has agreed to spend six weeks
this winter working in the field monitoring the swans in Whatcom
County." As well, "the CWS was given four satellite
transmitters by the society."

The web site "www.trumpeterswansociety.org" is given.

Is this the web site you refer to?

Could you give a brief statement of how you and/or the
naturalist group believe this information is linked to
Sinclair's desire to start a gravel extraction program?

As a new resident of Abbotsford and as one interested in
ecology, nature and wildlife I am most interested in this
situation. Thanks for taking the time to bring me up to speed
on this issue. Does the Central Valley Naturalist group have a
website? I would also be interested in learning about it.

Regards, Barbara Fysh