Destroying nests stem from need to be clean
This is a response to “City rips out swallow nests for developer,” [NWSaturday, April 14].
I walk regularly at Magnuson Park and each year look forward to the return of the swallows. I consider it a sure sign that spring has arrived and I was thrilled when, a few weeks ago, I saw them gracefully swooping over the fields once again.
To learn that the city parks department destroyed 174 nests of these beautiful and harmless birds makes me ill and furious. For years, the city rounded up and gassed Canada geese and now this.
And for what? An apparently endless and futile quest to ensure that people never encounter animal droppings of any kind; in a world where we cannot escape bottles of hand sanitizer everywhere we turn; we now apparently expect parks to be sterile also?
I hope the swallows find a new, safe and peaceful nesting ground far from the reach of the city parks department.
— Lisa Wathne, Lake Forest Park
City parks need to be natural, stay natural
I am appalled at the senseless removal of swallows’ nests at Magnuson Park for the benefit of a developer.
We need our city parks to be as natural as possible and to criminalize some bird droppings is so utterly wrong. Would these beautiful birds ever return to Magnuson Park? Respecting wildlife should be primordial. It is our duty.
— Claudine Erlandson, Shoreline