A Follow Up

It was a nice day yesterday and, since I was already out and about, I decided to stop by Bernhart's Park. I mentioned it before. Lead poisoned or not, it’s still a pretty spot. Well, mostly. There were some geese roaming the ice, though not nearly as many as there have been in other years. They’re fun to watch with how they appear to squabble back and forth.

The rest of the park was a tad depressing. Supposedly, the decontamination work is to begin this spring. There are many trees, mostly dead or nearly so, marked with bright orange x’s. I’m guess it indicates which are to be cut, hopefully replaced since more trees were tagged than weren’t.

Admittedly, the ground is in the process of thawing so it’s bound to be slightly soggy however the marshy patch of last year seems to have spread. They’ll need to do something about that. Perhaps they’ll create a channel to redirect the spring back into the stream that feeds the lake when they replace the top layer of the soil.

They’re still fighting about which parts of the park to fix. The battery company contends that the areas of highest contamination are on a steep slope that doesn’t need to be included. The only problem is there are paths crossing the slope. And the slope is almost, but not quite adjacent to the lake. Um, maybe someone should explain that water filters downhill? Won’t the lead recontaminate the flat part right along the lake if the hill is ignored?

Which brings up another question. The lake. I haven’t read anywhere that they are going to be dong anything about that. Of course I have no idea how contaminated the lake is although the no fishing signs make me suppose that it is to some extent. Will there never be any fishing permitted again? Or will it be catch and release only?

And then there were the ribcages, I’m guessing deer. There were several. Why? Don’t really know. Either the park has become a dumping ground for carcasses, a site of some sort of rituals or a place where critters come to die.