Omaha Officials Lack of Response to Habitat Request

A fruitful meeting to discuss the bird habitat area was held the morning of July 31st, at the Parks department. Brook Bench will have staff place log barriers to prevent vehicle access to the site, and also look into land parcel status. A special thanks to them for addressing this matter.

Omaha officials have repeatedly and consistently expressed worthless responses in regards to a request to establish an area of bird habitat adjacent to Levi Carter Park.

The most consistent person in this regard is Steve Oltmans, chief of staff in the office of mayor Jim Suttle. Interim director of the Omaha Parks and Recreation, Brook Bench, has done the same.

The worthless words by city officials were in response to a personal and email request that a bit of public property at the northwest corner of Levi Carter Park be established as a bird habitat.

Ownership of the property was derived by checking parcel information available at the website of the Douglas County assessor.

On March 29, 2012, the mayor and parks department -- as well as local news outlets -- received an email with a picture documenting one of several tracks through the parcel, resulting from the use motorized vehicles. There were apparently from 4x4s.

This is an illegal use of motorized vehicles, according to statutes of the City of Omaha.

Original Request to Establish Bird Habitat

The first request to establish a bit of recognized bird habitat in association with Levi Carter Park was expressed in person on the morning of April 30th. The same pencil-drawn graphic was used during the minutes of conversation in Oltmans' office as well as with Bench -- a short time later -- upstairs in the Omaha/Douglas Civic Center.

Both men asked for details in a written format, so the following email was sent during the noon hour, and included a graphic denoting the locales of interest. This is the text of the email:

"The attached image indicates the three areas discussed this morning, in the following regard.

"1) Designate the area as a bird habitat. This would require that it officially become part of the park, and that two signs be placed that motor vehicles are not allowed.

"This is a fine little area for song birds because of the shrubby growth. If so designated, trash removal will be taken care of by volunteers, and perhaps a sign could be placed -- payed [sic] for by a community group -- that would say: Wildbird Habitat Do Not Disturb

"By the way, the area to the east -- along the abandoned railway -- is also public property, and should become part of the park environs, and once cleaned up, would require little if any maintenance and also contribute to the park's diversity.

"2) Browne street woods

"Move ahead on getting this abandoned ROW donated to the Omaha Parks Foundation by the Union Pacific railroad. I have contacted the OPF twice on this but have heard nothing further.

"3) Southwest meadow

"Establish that this wet meadow -- the most unique and rare habitat in the park -- is a meadow area and will remain as a habitat area and not become a dog run as indicated by the park's master plan diagram.

"This is already a meadow with grassy vegetation and wet soil conditions, which would also make it a wetland. If the landuse remains the same, perhaps a little project could be done to help maintain the water conditions with financing from for a control structure from an entity that does such things, or maybe built by volunteers using donated material, as it would not take much to get something in place.

"4) The island is being called Bird Island and it would seem that if could also be 'officially' recognized as a wildbird habitat area, with no effort required other than recognition.

"This is a straight-forward, simple request, and I look forward to a reply. The city could get some good KUDO's just by making an affirmative decision and installing two signs."

Support for this recognition was also requested from the Audubon Society of Omaha. And an email was subsequently sent to Oltmans and Bench on May 17th.

No City Response

During the past three months, there has been no response received from any city official on this request. No email or phone call has been received that indicated a decisive response regarding the request.

This is a timeline of subsequent events, as personally documented:

On June 17th, Oltmans was called at his home residence. During a brief discussion he asked if anything had been received in writing. He made sure to express that the call "intruded upon his precious time." A followup email with the same details as originally sent via email, were resent the next day.

On Monday morning, June 4th, Brook Bench was seen at Levi Carter Park while checking on the status of work needed for an upcoming fund-raiser. Though he was quickly trying to exit the scene, he was "caught" before departing and asked if he would like to the see the habitat area, since he was at the park. He was not able to because he had to get to a meeting downtown, was the response. Upon being asked when a decision would be provided, he said two weeks.

On Friday morning, June 8th, a visit was made to the mayor's office to discuss the request with Steve Oltmans. It was about 8 a.m., and when he was asked for, the office worker checked, returned, and said he was in a meeting. The response was that he was in a meeting and that a meeting would be setup to discuss the request. It was obvious he was not in a meeting at the time of the visit.

On July 13th, Oltmans made a call-back and was told that the phone calls earlier in the day were in regards to the bird habitat request. He once again said that a meeting would need to be setup, and that it would take time to reach a decision.

As of July 22, 2012 there has been no response regarding this request. There have been many instances of lies when a response would be provided, or something would be done to discuss the simple request.

Ongoing Indifference

This example of a response of ignorance is nothing new by Omaha city officials.

In April, a specific request on how much the Park Department was to spend on vegetative clearing at Carter Lake, was submitted to Oltmans and Bench. A followup phone call on this matter was made to Oltmans on April 18, with an indication that details would be provided as soon as possible.

An approximate amount was finally determined, based a personal visit to get this detail on April 30th in Oltmans office, downtown Omaha.

It can also be noted that it took three efforts to remove trash from the abandoned railway route. After the first report, personal efforts were taken to gather together missed trash and debris, taken care of during a subsequent visit, after another phone call.

There is still trash, tires, and other debris which city officials have ignored in this area, and further south adjacent to the railroad route, including a broken and basically-junk jacuzzi and furniture, which was noted in a photo to city officials many weeks ago.

The first email communications (there were 3-4 sent to connect the right people) regarding the donation of the abandoned railway route occurred in November 2011. There was a note from a Union Pacific official in January 2012 that "it was still being worked on."

Passenger Pigeon Business - Minnesota

The Rush of Trappers - Heavy Shipments of the Birds Eastward.

Within the past few days large numbers of pigeon trappers have been coming into the State from Illinois, Wisconsin, and other States east of us, following up the flocks of pigeons and trapping them for Eastern markets. It is made a regular matter of business, and a most profitable one, too, if the statements of the trappers may be relied upon. How can it be otherwise, when it is estimated that a hundred trappers have gone out on the Winona and St. Peter Railroad within the past week, and still they come! Kasson appears to be the chief center just now, although the hunters scatter along at neighboring stations from there as far east as Rochester, over by Pine Island, Oronoco, and vicinity. Wherever the pigeons are there are the trappers gathered together with their wiles, their decoys and nets, catching the birds by the hundreds and shipping them by the barrel, to tickle the palates of Eastern epicures.

From Mr. Knight, the express agent at this place, we learn that the first shipment of pigeons for the season came East by express, from Kasson, last Thursday, the 8th inst., and consisted of ten barrels. Since then the shipments have increased daily, justifying the inference that the trappers are doing a land office business. On Monday, twenty-five barrels came down; Tuesday, thirty-eight; Wednesday, thirty-two; and so it will probably keep up for several days, until the pigeons fly to fields and (mis)fortunes new, only to be followed by the "onward march of civilization."

How the naughty trappers catch the poor little innocent pigeons whose only fault is pulling up a few grains of wheat, now and then (to be to their faults a little blind), may interest the reader, if he will take a description of the modus operandi, second hand. The trapper has a long net, varying according to his pleasure and ability to manage it, from thirty to fifty or sixty feet in length. Width, probably, ten, twelve, or fourteen feet. This net is spread upon the ground, while at one side is scattered a tempting banquet for the coming victims. Pigeons are treated exactly on the same plan adopted for "the lords of creation." Whenever any nice little scheme of diplomacy is on foot a judicious feeler is advanced in the way of an inviting repast, and under the pacifying influence of a well stored interior the negotiations proceed harmoniously.

But aside from the grain the trappers have another decoy. They capture a pigeon, and perform the operation of refined cruelty by blinding it by stitching its eyelids together, in order that it will not struggle to free itself when the pigeons come around. The trapper himself is ambushed in a rustic bower at a convenient distance, where he can manipulate the net and cause the decoy pigeon to rise from the spring stool when a flock comes flying over. Seeing this fellow pigeon "living in clover," and flying up a little way and then dropping again, as is the coaxing way of the birds, the flock accept the invitation and descend upon the grain, which they have no sooner fairly commenced upon than the trap is sprung and they find themselves pinned under the net.

Then the slaughter commences. The trapper passes quickly among them, picking them up one by one and pinching their heads between his thumb and forefinger, making quick and almost painless death for the captives. The operation is sudden but effective, the tender bones of the head being crushed in by the process. As fast as this is done the birds are thrown into a pile to await the dressing operation, which consists in removing the inwards and roughly plucking the feathers, after which the birds are washed, packed in barrels with ice, and started upon their journey by express.

One old trapper said he has been in the business thirty years, but even this statement was outdone in importance by the succeeding one that he paid to the express company, last season, five thousand dollars for charges on his shipment of pigeons. His bill of telegraphing amounted to two thousand dollars. We understand that the pigeons net the trappers forty-eight dollars per barrel, in New York, there being from thirty to thirty-five dozen in a barrel. In Winona, pigeons are selling at $1.25 per dozen.

A few years ago there were large pigeon roosts at Chatfield and near Wabashaw, and now, after slighting their old haunts for a while, the birds are coming back again.

May 15, 1873. City and Vicinity. The Pigeon Business. Winona Daily Republican 14(4123): 3.

Where the Blue Crane Lives

[This is probably the first extensive article about a heron rookery thus far found for North America prior to ca. 1885. The details are exquisite in giving a particular place, a probable number, site features, some historic perspective and other miscellany which all provide a profound bit of bird history. It is also an expressively-written account.]

Mr. John L. Dunlap has returned from a hunting expedition in Spencer county, Kentucky. The only trophy he brought back with him was a gigantic blue crane, which measured five feet from tip to tip, and was exactly six feet in height. Mr. Dunlap tells a very curious story of a report of these cranes. About two miles from Taylorsville is an island in Sayre's creek whose area is perhaps ten acres.

The island is a favorite haunt of these peculiar birds, who annually resort there for the purpose of rearing their young. Notwithstanding the fact that the crane is a wading bird it builds its nest in the tallest trees it can find. The island is not cleared up, but is covered with gigantic sycamore towering eighty or ninety feet in height, and the loftiest of these are selected by them for their nests. One of the trees has twenty-eight nests upon its top-most branches, and another has twelve. The nests are rude, ugly structures, built in a slovenly manner of sticks, leaves and twigs, and are guarded jealously by the birds throughout the breeding season.

The cranes have been in the habit of resorting to this island for a term of years beyond the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Here they have been left undisturbed, until it has become a royal domain on which nothing else of the feathered tribe dare intrude. The silence of the centuries broods over the primeval forest, unbroken save by the flapping of their wings, or it may be the chance shot of the wandering sportsman. The stretch for miles around is frequented by flocks of the birds who here seem to lose, at least for a time, their solitary instincts, and become sociable and gregarious. They leave annually about the first of September, returning the first of April, and have been doing so for years and years. Their number upon the island is almost incredible, and old citizens of that country say it must be fully 1,000 perhaps much more.

May 16, 1883. Fort Wayne Daily Gazette 19(193): 4. Issued at Fort Wayne, Indiana.

First Blue-bird of Spring

Whatever weight the hours have borne

Along the path of frost and snow,

The world is never too forlorn

For birds to sing again; we know

That earliest buds will soon expand,

That spring is somewhere in the land,

For hark! the blue-bird sings.

 

Somewhere the grass is green again,

The meadow mild with shower and sun;

Out bud the trees, up starts the grain,

Through balmy woods the brook doth run,

If anywhere such things may be,

Then why not soon for thee and me?

For hark! the blue-bird sings.

The first blue-bird. April 20, 1876. Colorado Banner 1(30): 7. Published at Boulder, Colorado.

Nebraska: Soil - Coal - Indians - Game

Correspondence of The Tribune.

Table Creek, Nebraska Territory, April 21.

I have traveled the distance of four hundred miles in Nebraska, sleeping under bluffs and encamping upon "spring branches," as the little rivulets are called which meander through the prairies, and now have the satisfaction to declare to you that the Nebraska Territory offers greater advantages to the settler than I had previously anticipated.

The quantity of timber is small, and it would require a careful use to render it sufficient, but the soil is unequaled for fertility, health and vigor of life certain, the climate agreeable and scenery beautiful.

At this place, previous to the commencement of the Mexican War, there existed a military post, called "Old Fort Kearney." About 10 miles below this place, which is a bluff on the Missouri river, and distant about 25 miles from the mouth of the Nebraska, or Platte, a vein of coal, resembling the coal taken out at Cannelton, (Ind.) — similar to Pittsburgh, though not so good for some purposes, and yet better for others, comes out and shows itself in the bluffs on the Missouri. Distant about 90 miles southwest, another vein of similar coal makes its appearance. Several other veins of coal are said to have been discovered in the Territory, and my observation, as well as information assures me that coal of a good quality, and in sufficient quantities may be found in the Territory. Forty-five miles from this place, in a westerly direction, is a salt spring, from which a sufficient quantity of salt may be manufactured to salt half of the sinners of this continent. On the north side of the Nebraska or Platte, distant 15 or 20 miles from the Missouri, I discovered iron ore of a good quality, which there exists in great quantities. It shows itself in boulders along the bluffs for the distance of several miles. Limestone prevails almost everywhere, and a fine quality of clay, such as it found on the Ohio River, and there used for pottery, accompanies the exhibition of coal on the shores of the Missouri River. Accepting these facts, you will readily acknowledge that the Nebraska Territory is a country worthy of the attention of those desiring good and pleasant homes. I hope to live until Nebraska is accounted the sixth state of this Union. This Territory is now occupied only by a few miserable Indians and before a civilized people can be commenced here, must be some special legislative Congress for the purpose, and the Indians removed. This without doubt will be effected within a year. At this time no agency which you and your friends could send out would procure any advantage.

I have visited every section of western Iowa. The lands there are equal to those of this Territory, which are the best in America; but in Iowa there is no stone, of which there is an abundance in Nebraska. Nor coal, nor salt, nor clay, only such is fit for brick, which also presents here. Again in Iowa, the land is all "claimed up," and in the travel of 300 miles I could not find a single quarter section of land, available for a farm, which could be entered upon without the payment of a considerable sum of money more than the Government price.

As for "goods, wares and merchandise," there are here, on the opposite side of the Missouri, in any quantity desirable, and sold as reasonable as to price, as in Cannelton. Farming utensils are here in abundance, and sold as cheap as at your place. Household furniture about the same. On this subject I will hereafter write you more fully.

I can say nothing further at this time, than simply to declare that I am delighted with the country, am determined to have a home unit, and that I shall expect to have you and your friends for my neighbors.

T. J. S.

P.S. — I have written this letter with the quill from the wing of a Bald Eagle, taken by Mr. W., with a rifle bullet, a few days ago in this neighborhood. The river seems full of wild geese, brant and ducks. I have seen some twenty deer, and some dozen of wild turkeys. Of pigeons there are some, squirrels are in the timber in great numbers. On the prairies the fowls are numerous. I use both rifle and shot gun.

June 3, 1851. New York Daily Tribune 11(3160): 6. Also June 26, 1851 in the Glasgow Weekly Times 12(17): 1.

This is probably the first newspaper article that mentions wild birds to have come from Nebraska. The state had not even been established at this time. Table Creek is undoubtedly near Nebraska City, Otoe County, and near the Missouri River. The military post was called Fort Kearny.

Bird of Freedom - Handsome Eagle

A Bird of Freedom.

The Handsome Eagle Sent to the Bee by Gothenburg Friends.

The Bee received yesterday a trophy which shall ever be prized and preserved as long as the cylinders of its presses rotate and its hired men rustle with facts. It came in a box by express and is nothing less than a large golden eagle. To one of its feet was tied the following card which in a measure explained all, but left it to be regretted that the details of the killing of the bird were not sent:

Thanksgiving Eagle.

To the Omaha Bee.

Compliments of the boys and proprietor of Hotel Gothenburg. Shot by Steve Kingrey, over the hotel.

Gothenburg, Nebraska.

The eagle is a magnificent specimen, being evidently at full growth and measuring seven feet from tip to tip of wing. It has been given into the hands of a taxidermist and when prepared will be mounted in some prominent place in the office.

November 28, 1885. Omaha Daily Bee 15(136): 8.

Poetic Expression from Early-day Nebraska

Written for the Journal.

You'll not Forget, Jennie?

By Marion Gray.

The days go by swiftly, Jennie,

The fresh air sweeter grows;

I hear the joyous song of birds

And smell the budding rose.

We've loved each other well, Jennie,

Each heart beat warm, and true;

And now that I'm dying, Jennie,

This boon I'd ask of you.

 

That you will not forget me, Jennie,

When I am lying still

In yonder "city of the dead,"

Whose spires gleam o'er the hill.

You'll come and sit beside me Jennie.

And think our sweet life o'er

And pray that you and I, Jennie,

May meet on yonder shore.

 

You'll not forget to plant, Jennie

Around my place of rest,

Some trees whose shade shall woo the birds

To sing, and build their nest.

You'll bring some flowers there, too, Jennie.

To fringe my pillow, green;

Forgive that I should ask, your love

Would prompt this care, I ween.

Columbus, June 14th.

July 2, 1879. Columbus Journal 10(9): 1.