Chris, BGE is doing a lot of cutting in the park right now. I was advsed by park staff that they are working on their righ to f ways pretty much from one end of the park to the other. The height and distance of the cuttings away from the roosting site is indicative of a broader area being selectively trimmed as opposed to a one tree being trimmed right at the roosting area. My guess is that the tree trimmers probably didn't even know about the inhabitants. The specific cutting in question was not of the actual roost tree but rather of a nearby tree.
On 02/07/13, Chris Starling wrote:
Refreshing news!
Are there plans to verify this? As I am sure you know, this kind of maintenance work could be easily confirmed by calling BGE. Regardless, thanks for shedding yet more light on this matter!
Despite the surface view of this apparent "non-incident," I don't believe this has been all-for-not. We have been given a rare instance to be proactive to a potential problem rather than reactive.
This is great for a few reasons.
First, our community here seems to now be able to rest assured that none of our contemporaries, friends, or like-minded earthly co-inhabitants appears to have intentionally or inadvertently caused an ethical dilemma or irresponsible harm to an easily disturbed species.
Secondly, this apparent misunderstanding has initiated a very important dialogue that would not have occurred until a similar act had actually happened.
Third, we have all hopefully been reminded that everything we do wherever we are has a consequence and we should be constantly aware of this.
Lastly and maybe most beneficially, we have caused ?eBird Corporate? (lol) to realize that an important issue regarding the reporting of sensitive species, though they were already aware of it, should be revisited and that work for a mitigation plan for the issue should be expedited.
Let?s turn this potentially negative incident into a positive for ecological conservation, wildlife conservation, the psychological well-being of birders, the personal safety of saw-wielding photographers, ?eBird Corporate,? and so many other important scientific endeavors!
peace and love,
cstar
On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 12:10 PM, <kmlathroum...> wrote:
To all concerned I inspected the area this morning with another Officer from the Natural Resources Police, we walked the area approximately 50 yards going in each direction of the roost site which is in the middle of this discussion. It is our professional opinion that the cutting in question was done by BGE and or their contractors. We located apprxoimately 20 fresh trimmings. Allof the trimming apears to have been done with a chain saw and based on the height of some of the trimming most likely a pole type pruning saw. All of the selective pruning appears to have been done to branches/trees which were sticking out into the ccess road which coud be problematic to getting a bucket truck or similar piece of equipment into the area for maintenance. At this time we believe that it is comincidental that the tree near the roost site was impacted.
Thanks to all for the heads up regarding this potential misuse/abuse of public land.
Corporal Mike Lathroum
Maryland Natural Resources Police
3738 Gwynnbrook Ave
Owings Mills, MD 21117
cell - 443-924-4006
(410)260-8888 24 hour dispatch
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