Bald Eagles / Stop CPD Shooting Range / O'brien Lock Marsh / Acie Cargill

Poet and animal rights activist Acie Cargill presents his opinion about the proposed Chicago Police shooting range planned to be constructed across the Calumet River from the Hegewisch Marsh nature reserve.,Bald Eagles have been seen nesting on the adjacent.property

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Music

Tags:

• stop
• the
• chicago
• police
• shooting
• range/
• tom
• shepherd/
• southeast
• environmental
• task
• force
• hegewisch
• marsh
• calumet
• wetlands.
• millennium
• reserve
• Nature Reserve
• Wetland
• Illinois
• bald
• eagles

[aciecargill]

so far the police have not abandoned their plan, in fact they have applied for the permit to proceed with the US fish and wildlife department.

[aciecargill]

Mayor Emanuel. Please officially abandon the Police Shooting Range plan. Move it to the sludge fields or sherwin williams remediation site to the north. No wildlife there and no people to bother.

[aciecargill]

On Friday, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said ."We're not going to do anything to jeopardize any sort of environmental issues or any sort of threatened species of birds, so we're working with our state and federal partners to determine whether or not we can, in fact, move in there … so we're looking at alternatives," McCarthy said. "We need to evaluate it, then we'll come up with a plan to move forward. But we're not going to hurt the environment."

[aciecargill]

Keep the gate locked now. Allow the wildlife some privacy. Fishermen can sit along the north road and hopefully they will keep it clean. How about an observation deck to be built outside the site and financed hopefully by Waste Management. Any construction should be done with an absolute minimum of sound. Build the structure somewhere else and have it brought in on a truck.

[aciecargill]

Big News. Tom was out there today with CBS News. He saw 4 eagles. Two at 2 different locations. CPD chief McCarthy said they will possibly reconsider the location. Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson both commented on the severity of messing with the eagles. Things are looking good.

[aciecargill]

The Obrien Lock Marsh pond is about 11 acres and the Whitford Pond is about 28 acres. Together with the matshy land and woods between them, the wild area is 50 or 60 acres. Thats a lot to be destroyed by the sound of gunfire. The City must be stopped. Do it through the court system. Where are our legitimate political leaders? What about the African-Amercan communities?

[aciecargill]

Today a group of observers went to the site and the eagles are gone. That is to be expected. The gate has been left open and who knows who has been in there. Anyway, the important thing is that the eagles nested there indicating the wild nature of the spot. These are rare in our area.. It must be protected and that also means from obtrusive sound.

[aciecargill]

I've never seen an eagle, To me they are the symbol of wild nature. You dont see them in your backyard. You probably wont see them at all. Ever. They are only in wild places. They were seen today by an inspector for the US. It is validated. There are eagles living at Whitford Pond. The US knows it, The city knows it and the MWRD knows it. The state is going there in a few days.  Does anyone care?

[aciecargill]

What about this Governor Quinn? You come up with a great Millennium Reserve Plan and a few months later you get slapped in the face. Those big ponds are listed in the Calumet Core of your program and they will become a wasteland because of the nearby gunfire of they build a shooting range there.

Build it somewhere else where it will not have as big an impact on the ecology.

[aciecargill]

Time to bring in the heavy hitters. Where is the Audubon Society? Where are some of the big national nature watchdogs who are on government payrolls or sponsored by foundations? What does it take to get these people interested in helping to stop this police shooting range? It is time for them to earn their pay.