Bugs is bugs

Everyone out there getting ready for the Miller Ride for the Arts, notice how dense the gnats are getting? Normally, I see a lot more warblers in the spring migration, but it's been an incredibly thin year for that, which equates to much larger numbers of gnats, mosquitoes and biting flies. Sadly, the Cooper's Hawk population has recovered and last year they were even fighting for nesting sites (ESPN?). Compound this increase in birdivores with all the condo construction which diminishes warbler stopping places and you have insect problems, not only here, but in the Wisconsin North woods where songbirds protect the forests from insect predation. Warblers, when they stop here, need enough cover to keep them from seeing any activity. They freeze when they see activity and stop eating, only, they are very hungry after flying thousands of miles, so they don't hang around if they can't eat in peace. Hence, perpetual development has steadily reduced the actual numbers of places where migrating songbirds can congregate, making it that much easier for the hawks to feed on them. This makes it much harder for us humans to avoid being annoyed by disease bearing insects.

While the Condo development was keeping south of North Avenue, where the river has been channeled since the 1800s, there was no problem with them building human habitation and box stores. Now, however they are crossing the line and with UWM as the con bait, are starting to build in prime migratory bird corridor habitat. The deal seems innocuous enough, but it is fraught with treachery and error. First they are promising not to build a through road, but a through road is required by law, so once they build the condos and dorms, they will have to bulldoze more riparian forest and activity screen to put in their road that the aldermen will gladly lay down for. It at least shuts the naive neithbors, or the idiot media (whichever) up for awhile.

Second, the issue of the riparian migratory corridor is being pooh poohed in the zoning committee meetings. All the city folk who want to see some part of nature in their world are supposed to move out to the country. Gladly, if it would still remain countryside, but if the whole city moved to the country, then the country would become the city, gosh how hard that is to figure out. Also, would our jobs and our tax paying businesses and residences move with us? Connecting with nature is an important part of life. Without being able to connect to the natural basis of life, one can never really learn to formulate principled arguments, since they do not have a strong understanding or grasp of the principles upon which life - modern or otherwise is based. I bet I know where to find at least one good example of that.

If we are expected to be human in a completely utilitarian world, I suggest reading "On Liberty" by John and Harriet Stuart Mill. Mr Mill was the most outstanding student of Jeremy Bentham, who in turn was the primary philosopher behind Utilitarianism. Mill realized that to be human meant that everything in our world could not be worked out in entirety. One could never be happy if all the problems were solved because we are a problem solving creature. To solve a problem requires that we have a strong grasp of principles, or we otherwise get frustrated alot. Experience with the oldest system in the world (400 million years and counting) gives individuals the soundest principles that can be obtained. Hence nature in a natural state, freely available for experiencing is critical for maintaining an intelligent, happy and less frustrated population, especially in a city, where it is more heavily used than anywhere else. Does it occur to anyone in government that the reason the city keeps losing people to the suburbs and why businesses keep moving to Waukesha is that there is in fact more nature out there? Isn't the big problem that the city is losing business? So how does destroying and neglecting more of our natural wealth serve?

Notice, that all the fancy condo names such as Fox Run or Oak Grove or even River View should be preceeded with the words "Used To Be". Living on a river where the adjacent bird habitat has been compromised is like living on a sewer with the added advantage of having a lot of insect pests. The value of a river is a lot more that a channel of water. But I wouldn't expect an unprincipled individual to understand that.

Peace