Shorebird wood chipper massacre reported in Oakland

[yuiyoshida]

Oakland has come to love the squawking black-crowned night herons that have taken up residence downtown. City work crews leave them alone, and residents say they adore the colony's rain-forest-like cacophony - a bit of nature amid the hardscrabble urban landscape.

But the shorebirds aren't so cute to the U.S. Postal Service. Officials at the downtown post office ordered nearby trees trimmed Saturday because nesting birds were defecating on the mail trucks.

The result, witnesses said, was a feathery massacre that ended with nests - and baby birds - fed through a wood chipper, hysterical neighbors protesting in the street, and a call to Oakland police officers, who ordered the trimmers to stop.

Now, state and federal wildlife officials are investigating the matter, because the nest destruction and bird deaths may have violated the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

"I'm devastated. That someone could do that without even looking to see if there are nests, could have so little empathy ... it's heart wrenching," said Stephanie Benavidez, Oakland's supervising naturalist. "The public was incensed, rightfully."

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Shorebird-wood-chipper-massacre-reported-in-5458395.php

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. They're a protected species.

I hope they go after the specific person who ordered their nesting habitat to be destroyed, eggs, nests, chicks and all, and don't merely levy a fine on 'the post office'. AND the company that was willing to do so without bothering to check if they were destroying a protected species. That's just cold blooded.

[Enrique]

2. herons chose to live in downtown Oakland?

and people want to get rid of them? Insanity.

Probably the coolest thing when I moved down here to Florida was big birds walking around on the sidewalks.

[wryter2000]

21. I'm not surprised to hear we have herons downtown

Lake Merritt (the first wildlife sanctuary in the country) is a few blocks from downtown. There have always been black crowned night herons there. The Canada geese have become so numerous their poop is a problem.

I love my city. Rest assured that Oakland won't let bird slaughter happen again.

[dionysus]

26. i play golf on a course where a large pond is home to legions of canadian geese.they will completely

blanket entire areas with poop (one of the greens especially), which must be a real joy for the groundskeeper to take care of.

[CreekDog]

33. for a city so maligned, kudos to Oakland

for using its police to protect the birds and training its workers to not disturb them and for its residents downtown who took action to protect them too.

[MerryBlooms]

3. Sickening

[ladjf]

4. Another act of violence by the human race toward another species. nt

[mopinko]

5. i believe the prescription is several years as a guest of the feds.

somebody damn well better serve some serious time here.

[meanit]

6. Sickening.

Perhaps someone should look at the tree company who did the work. One would think that they would have a protocol for dealing with wildlife residing in the trees they cut down.

[yuiyoshida]

8. Did you read some of the comments?

an example:


"
RhinestoneGrr

You know, sometimes it seems like people care more about the well-being of a bunch of birds (who are not an endangered species) than they do about their fellow human beings. There are plenty of people going to bed hungry at night in the Bay Area, plenty of people who live in such profound poverty that they often have to make the choice between purchasing food or their life-saving medications...and yet no one rushes in to save their lives and make sure their well-being is looked after...but meanwhile everyone gets all hot under the collar about a bunch of wild birds, and the government finally decides to prosecute someone for a crime for a change...Seriously??? If people care so much about birds, why haven't they closed KFC?!!!"

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. yeah, "Rhinestone Grr",

Because animals aren't asshats.

[Enrique]

11. for me this is about the people's well-being as much as the birds'

it's good for people in downtown Oakland to have those birds living there with them. There's a good chance the person that wrote that lives out in the suburbs where there is plenty of wildlife.

[meanit]

14. What an idiot that commenter is.

So we should not care about wildlife because people are poor.....

[Omaha Steve]

15. Dear RhinestoneGrr

Please tell conservatives in all levels of government you want higher taxes to pay for programs for the sick, poor, homeless,..

Get my drift?

[MineralMan]

7. Seriously illegal. A violation of Federal law.

They clearly knew there were nesting birds in those trees. In fact, that's why the work was ordered. Someone's about to learn the consequences of killing migratory birds.

Cars and other vehicles can be washed. Dead baby birds can't be brought back to life.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. the whole thing was a terrible accident,

Said Augustine Ruiz, spokesLIAR for the post office.

Right. The PO official who ordered the tree trimming just moved there and had nooooooo idea?

Tree trimmer company owner already said that. "New crew".

[joeybee12]

27. What a load of bullshit from both organizations...

Throw the liars in prison.

[Blue_Tires]

35. "Prison?" Were the birds endangered or something?

Is anyone shedding a tear (or is this even a story) if the animal in question was an Urban Pigeon, squirrel or Canada Goose?

[joeybee12]

36. Pffffffffffffffffft

Read the story...it was an inhumane way to end any creature's life...and yes, they are considered endangered.

[Blue_Tires]

37. "...an inhumane way to end any creature's life..."

I hate to be the one to play this card, but I do hope you're vegan...

But honestly I didn't know they were endangered, because that of course changes things considerably...The story didn't make any mention of it...

[joeybee12]

39. Someone else posted it in the thread somewhere and had a link...nt

[Bluenorthwest]

12. There was a Great Blue Heron in my neighbor's yard on Monday

They are amazing and very protected under the law.

[jtuck004]

13. U.S. Postal Service - not enough trouble already?

It was ordered because the birds were crapping on the vehicles, so they knew the birds and nests were there, and didn't make a provision to do anything about them. And it's the same thing done in every place in the country after a storm, live animals and all.

"Enter Campos Tree Service, a family-owned operation based in Walnut Creek. Postal officials hired Campos to trim the city-owned trees that housed the offending birds...
The bird deaths and injuries were an accident, said Joe Campos, a supervisor at Campos Tree Service.

"The crew didn't know the baby birds were in there," he said. "They were new. It'll never happen again. It's a big deal, though - we don't want to destroy anything."

I guess anyone might accidentally hire people who don't see animals as worthwhile and would feed baby chicks through a wood chipper while they screamed. On the other hand, it's very likely that this tree service, just like most, never worries about that because their customers don't, and their customers don't because no one wants to pay the extra money to take the extra care. So it becomes normalized.

But 2 foot tall birds walking around raising other birds would be hard to miss, so it is hardly likely that this is all on the tree service as much as they will make it out to be.

So who SHOULD have prevented this is the Postal Employee that ordered it done or the owner of the tree service. Instead it seems to filter down to the lowest paid, least powerful people in the entire deal, the ones that were told to go get it done, and had chipped a thousand trees which had birds in them, and this is the FIRST time anyone ever gave a flying rat's ass, including their boss or customer, and losing this job is probably going to leave them in poverty. Do the workers speak English as a first language? If not, they are even more likely to be accountable for things they shouldn't have to be.

Regardless, not the worker's fault.

The Post Office spokesperson thought it was unfortunate.

[meanit]

17. Not so sure about that

I doubt these are the first trees that this company has encountered with bird nests in them. Also, there most likely was a supervisor or foreman on site, or at least on call, for questions that the crew might have had. The government also hires approved companies to do work like this. When you pay for "professionals", you expect them to act as such and know what they are doing.

Nobody involved used their heads on this, or they just didn't give a crap.

[jtuck004]

24. Nobody involved used their heads on this, or they just didn't give a crap. < most likely

The vast majority of customers won't pay for professionals - shoot, many people prefer undocumented aliens because they can screw them over. Customers call around, get the cheapest bid, get it done. Companies with lots of overhead and training mostly close because there is not enough work at that price and they are under-capitalized. Most cutters that I know are hard working people doing very, very dangerous work, many with less education than others, some who may or may not even be able to read the words on the wood chipper. We live in the middle of one of the largest and most productive forested regions around in the Northwest, so I know people who do this kind of work. I didn't, but most of the people who grew up here have cut up wood at some point in their lives - people do it for money or exercise when they are younger.

Most of this nation contains wood from a forest, likely at the cost of young birds and chicks being killed, along with a lot of other animals. Day after day they send these folks out, who cut down trees, and I guarantee you the first time you go to your foreman and suggest that you are killing baby birds you are either gonna get kicked in the ass and sent back to work or fired.

And if he or she went to the owner and said they were killing baby birds, the owner would do the same thing to him or her.

Because when the owner goes to the customer and tells them it will cost hundreds of dollars or more to carefully climb up, retrieve the animals, and then place them in care, the vast majority of customers say "fuck the birds, cut my trees for less or I will find someone else". Except, once in a great while, you run into something like this. For some few companies they might have had enough understanding to stop and look, but most are small, operate on a limited budget, and, frankly, do more business because they charge a whole lot less. And you get less.

Of all the people who had the most education, experience, and insight as to what they needed, the person at the Post Office is probably number one, and I would bet money they never gave it a second thought, else they would have made it explicit up front. If it had been a concern they would have been more likely to call Asplundh, who is one of those that you might expect to know better (even then, they kill animals all the time in their work). But Asplundh charges more, and the PO is having budget issues forced upon them. So perhaps they called someone cheaper.

Being that this is America, the lowest common denominator often wins the day. This is one of the "benefits".

[meanit]

28. Thanks for the information.

It provides insights into what might have gone on.

Things like this usually seem to have a basis in lack of funds, outsourcing or cheap labor.

[951-Riverside]

22. It was Campos Tree Service not the USPS

Ironically on their website

Are you looking for a professional tree care company to provide you with the proper services for your trees? Are you tired of dealing with unprofessional contractors that only waste your time? If so, then call Campos Greenview Tree Service and receive the leading tree services in Walnut Creek CA and the surrounding areas. We have a large crew of experienced arborists that know what it takes to take care of your trees in a proper manner. They have been in the trade for many years and have handled projects of all sizes.

http://campostreesvc.com

[Dragonfli]

23. You are correct about the scapegoating of the lowest employees

That has become a given in our society (and it fills me with disgust), but I disagree that the employees are blameless, a worker has a choice.

I have worked in construction and specialized in the restoration of Victorian architecture, often when disassembling and recreating the eves on these wonderful houses one comes across a choice regarding what to do about nesting situations, I have had contractors that ran the range from "just bash them with a hammer and remove the mess" to "stop all work until we confer with experts on how to safely relocate them", but in the end I was staring at the nest and gazing at the children calling to their parent and had a personal choice to make. I never once decided to do the worst and on one occasion was fired over it.

We all have choices to make, good or bad.

[jtuck004]

25. Worker has choice. Starve. Some choice. If they don't wanna do it there

are ten million people behind them. So fuck the wife, fuck the kid, fuck the house, I will let my whole life be destroyed because I don't want to kill a bird.

The customers are eating cows and chicken for lunch, some of whom lived an died in terribly grotesque manners, and now the assholes are gonna pretend they are more moral, get all up on their white horse and be more self-righteous than the poor fuck who didn't even graduate high school and is just trying to put bread on the table and not get arrested by immigration.

I just noticed his car is there again. Periodically one of those tree-cutter guys sleeps in his car in the parking lot of his parent's now mostly shuttered pond business behind my house. dn my house. He cuts trees, and when there is no work he doesn't eat. And when he does cut trees, NO ONE is interested in his opinion.

EVERYONE makes more money and has more education than him. And there are at least a few thousand guys wanting his job anytime he says anything. At all. The only choices he gets are to survive or starve. He doesn't really have the luxury of admiring the beauty of the trees in all their splendor.

It wasn't the workers.

[Coventina]

29. Choices have consequences, it is true. It still doesn't excuse the wrong choice.

If you see an evil happening right in front of you, lives that can be saved, a wrong that can be stopped, and choose not to, there are consequences to that as well.

The workers might get fired anyway, being scapegoated by the higher ups.

The company might go out of business, if there's enough of a public outcry.

Also, the disregard for life, on a large scale, is part of what creates a system where factory farming is acceptable, and people are left hungry.

Maybe if we treated all lives as precious, choices such as you describe for the worker would not come up.

[jtuck004]

31. Not asking for excuses or forgiveness. But for some college-educated perhaps,

full-time employees with pensions and management skills and a life and a retirement, or the owner, to hide behind someone who may not have finished high school and point a finger at them is one of the most seriously pathetic sights I have seen, and I have seen it more than once in various forms.

That person could step up and say they only asked them to cut the trees, and did not check to see if they were members of the Birdwatchers Club.

The poor tree cutting bastard goes out there every day and does what he is told, (that is some of the most dangerous and strenuous work in this country, btw. Hard to get people to do it). He's just trying to keep a shitty apartment and a little food and some beer, and no one, starting at home, likely continuing through whatever part of school he made it through, up to and including his boss and the people who stand around waiting for a limb to break that he hasn't touched and fall on their car so they can steal something back from the insurance company after blaming the innocent tree climber...

and no one has EVER respected him, not really, not fucking once. He grew up in poverty, and in this country that most likely means you are gonna stay in poverty. He is disrespected by others on a nearly daily basis.

And now, in some miraculous burst of human spirit, he is supposed to do something different than he has been paid to do, something that has never been modeled for him. It will just suddenly appear...

And if it doesn't, well, it HAS to be his fault rather than those who share the privilege of being among the better-educated, better-paid, better-loved, mostly white, better-positioned people around him. Or her. Perhaps all these folks think the tree cutter is defective if that empathy doesn't suddenly appear. Though one wonders where all the non-defective people were if this was such a big fucking deal. Too lazy to watch someone work?

You wrote "Maybe if we treated all lives as precious, choices such as you describe for the worker would not come up."

We are in agreement on that. We disagree on who has the better opportunity and privilege to demonstrate it. I think hiding behind the tree cutter is like Clown Bundy hiding behind the women in Nevada.

Now, I could be completely full of it (likely) and the tree cutter might be a highly respected tree surgeon, a botanist who travels country to country in search of opportunities to add to our knowledge, and furthermore is member in good standing of the National Audubon Society. The National Audubon Society! OR something like that. Then, dammit, he should have known better.

But I bet not.

[Coventina]

32. I hope I didn't give the impression that I thought the manager, and those who gave the orders, are

blameless in this.

I am with you and say that "those who gave the orders" are certainly more to blame than the tree cutters themselves.
And, I hope they do get nailed for it.

I certainly don't think that if there is any criminal prosecution (due to the birds being migratory) that it should NOT be visited upon those guys at the bottom. It should rest on those who made the decision.

[Dragonfli]

41. I guess I did it wrong all those years, I should have just killed things for a living as killing is

the only way to survive in your world, too bad my wife and I starved for my lack of sociopathy. We didn't notice, but I guess it must have really sucked.

[2naSalit]

16. Yet another example

of why a decline in human population isn't the worst thing for all the other species in the bioshpere. We are way past carrying capacity for our species and we are guilty of species-centrism to the point where any other species that we perceive to be an inconvenience is subject to elimination.

Just sayin'

[L0oniX]

18. The Animal Nations and I are saddened by the humanity of humans.

...and yes they are a protected species.

[Blue Owl]

19. Hey no need to go postal on those poor birds

[wildeyed]

20. Seeing that would have made me hysterical.

Stupid, stupid way to try to resolve the problem.

[narnian60]

30. That was my thought, also.

I would have probably been arrested for acting like a lunatic.

[wildeyed]

42. Or for committing civil disobedience by throwing my body between the chippers and the baby birds.

Although it sounds like it was already too far gone by the time people figured out what was going on. At least the police came and did the right thing.

[Blue_Tires]

34. Well, to be fair

once they started messing with the trees, the birds were as good as dead anyway since the mother would have abandoned the nest...

On the bright side at least they didn't cut down the tree to "solve" the issue, as I've seen some people do in the past...

[Butterbean]

38. Revolting. Barbaric. n/t

[Rex]

40. A sign of the times. Life is meaningless if it obstructs business as usual.

Progress means killing anything that stands in your way.

[a la izquierda]

43. GAH! WTF is wrong with people?

A pox on those people.