Hey tweets, I got a call from the Ballard lockmaster's office today
about the letter I sent on Saturday, asking the lockmaster to consider
lowering the lake level to create more mud for spring migration. The
lady who responded to my letter said it had been a first for the
office. No one has ever brought up this issue before. I warned her
that more letters might be coming!

She plans to forward my letter to another office that she thinks will
be better equipped to deal with it - I think there is a biologist or
ecologist on staff there. She said that if anything can be done
without jeopardizing the other missions of the locks, they would see
what they could do.

She did tell me that the lockmaster is keeping the lake at the same
levels as last year, for each given season. In other words, as far as
she knows, there has been no change in how they operate. I'm not sure
I agree with that, because the lake is even higher now than it was
this time last year. Rather than argue with her, though - given that I
have no facts about the lockmaster's doings, and considering that I
only carry on pointless, meaningless arguments with my husband - I did
tell her that we know the land at the Fill is sinking. Perhaps we've
reached a tipping point, where the lake levels called for in the past
now have a far greater and more detrimental impact than before.

I'll keep you posted about any further developments. It may be too
late this spring to do much, but I do think that the former greatness
of the Fill as a shorebird migration filling station is well worth
preserving. - Connie, Seattle

constancesidles at gmail.com