It’s been a dry, scorching summer time. Excellent time of yr for a dip in Lake Washington.
Downside is, a few of Seattle’s high swimming seashores have been routinely closed.
Madison Park, Magnuson, Pritchard Island — all posted with keep out of the water warnings by Public Health — Seattle & King County.
The probably perpetrator, say county officers, is poop. Extra particularly, excessive concentrations of micro organism from waterfowl droppings.
This isn’t a brand new phenomenon round right here. Seattle Parks & Recreation is conscious of the problem and is taking steps to decrease the numbers of Canada geese specifically. That’s the excellent news. Merely put, town can’t enable its greatest watering holes to turn out to be summerlong poisonous stews.
Public Well being interprets water high quality check outcomes and makes the choice about when to briefly shut a seaside.
The testing is carried out weekly throughout the swim season. Some seashores have constantly higher water high quality than others, and there are various totally different variables. Every seaside in every year might be totally different.
As of final week, Madison Park and Pritchard Island Seaside have been closed for 3 weeks, open for 9. Magnuson has been closed for 2 weeks, open for 10. Earlier this week, all three have been closed for swimming.
What a seaside bummer.
Again in 2003, this newspaper ran a narrative with the headline: “Goose inhabitants drops 75 p.c in Seattle parks.”
This was the end result after federal wildlife brokers destroyed greater than 5,600 geese in Seattle when a federal choose dominated that the federal government might kill the birds in moveable fuel chambers arrange on the again of vehicles. Yikes.
Nowadays, Seattle Parks and different entities round Lake Washington — that is removed from a Seattle-only drawback — take part in a federal Division of Agriculture program that sends brokers out to depend geese and douse their eggs in corn oil, which prevents their hatching.
As well as, lifeguards and upkeep crews work to scrub up and eliminate goose poop on seashores, shorelines, and docks in order that it doesn’t enter the water and contaminate it.
All good efforts.
Canada geese are sensible birds and shortly get sensible to scarecrows, flags, and so forth.
As famous by the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife: “As a result of geese study that actual bodily hazard isn’t related to harassment and scare gadgets, the birds will shortly study to disregard them, regardless of how efficient these gadgets could also be initially.”
The division recommends noisemakers, canine, lasers, and “taste-aversion merchandise and different chemical repellents.”
All the above, please. Give Seattle swimmers again their seashores.
