LADWP hates birds, Griffith Park saves them.

LADWP is spending a cool $2 million on bird balls to repel birds from Silver Lake and Echo Park Lake. I talk about why this is a bad idea here. Longterm: bad environment, money down the drain, possible health problems, bad practices. Short term is obvious, of course: that it eliminates birds from the whole area, as well as any other animal. I’ve noticed that even on moonlit nights, play nights, it is still totally silent in there, even with new water filling the lake. And remember the missing herons?

Taken by Albert Torres, Ranger Griffith Park. Red Tailed Hawk baby.

On the other hand, I’ve had issues with the Griffith Park rangers at times, but they’re pretty good about taking care of wildlife right away. Here’s a picture of a baby red tailed hawk that fell from a redwood, taken by Albert Torres. They have lists of wildlife and raptor groups to call that know how to care for these injured or orphan animals.

I also remember a satisfying incident when I was running down my usual path and noticed a truck from the park’s “Forestry Division,” (unskilled tree hackers) had stopped near two trees that were removed that very day, for no reason whatsoever. I looked over, and there was a juvenile red tail on the grass, standing as tall as he could, maybe 18″. His strong big beak and yellow eyes were a guarantee that no one was going to pick him up to her bosom without thick leather gloves, but boy was he handsome. He looked like a grownup, but was really a teenager, probably only days from being able to fly. Obviously he had fallen down from the trees the “Forestry Division,” (unskilled tree hackers) had just killed. (In nesting season, of course.)

The park workers were just oogling him, so I ran to get a ranger who came right over and knew exactly which raptor group to call to get him. That was the right thing to do.

Say, with all the breast feeding programs the dwp has and all, do you think they have any room to throw in a few Best Practices wildlife programs for their workers?