Cambridge White Geese

Dedicated observers of Massachusetts politics know BMG is the source to turn to for comprehensive coverage of wildlife issues. With this in mind, a spotlight on the perennial controversy that swirls around the Cambridge White Geese.

The flock of anserinae live near the B.U. bridge. They are a cause celébre for City Council candidate Robert J. La Trémouille. As he wrote in 1999: "Most people, when looking at the M.D.C. properties on the Charles River, see a nice, quiet, underdeveloped area which could use a little bit of work. When developer types look at the Charles River, they use a word which is their greatest swear word. They use the word “under utilized.” It is usually said with a delicate shudder. …

"Something stands in the way of the developer types’ magnificent plan to counter the threat of under utilization (shudder) of the area on both sides of the B.U. Bridge: those magnificent geese.

Trémouille continued, six years later, in his resonse to the Candidates Questionaire at the 2 August debate for Cambridge City Council candidates: "It is silly to describe Cambridge’s environmental expenditures as other than a feeding trough for the powerful contractor/developer lobby. The extreme example is Magazine Beach. Contractors are being paid to destroy native vegetation, irreplacable wetlands, five trees and an animal habitat which has been shared by animals and humans for the better part of a century. They are ruthlessly, heartless and cruelly starving the most valuable tourist attraction in the area, the 25 year resident Charles River White Geese."

City Councillor Marjorie Decker, who grew up in Cabridgeport close to the Magazine Beach area, denies that the city has any animus toward the geese. Indeed, the flock appears to be surviving quite nicely. Next time you pass the B.U. bridge and catch a flash of white, however, spare a thought for the Cambridge white geese.