[BCNnet] Sun Times letter: Hazardous to birds

[Randi Doeker - Chicago]

This letter is from today's Sun-Times letters to the editor; kudos to
the writer. I encourage everyone to write letters not only to the
editors but, more importantly, to the reporters. (Their email address
will be someplace on the paper's website.) Short emails are best. It
only takes 3 lines to make your point. Even "environmental" reporters
know nothing about birds: what kills them and what keeps them alive. 

 

Randi Doeker - Chicago

 

 

Hazardous to birds 

I read David Roeder's column ["Eco-friendly builders starting to grow;
office developers and their tenants see value in 'green' stamp"] in
the business section of the Feb. 20 edition concerning eco-friendly
builders. I work at an adjacent building, and my office overlooks the
111 South Wacker building, the focus of his article. I wanted to point
out that while this building does indeed have many people-friendly
features, the landscaped green roof is surrounded by glass! This
feature does not make it an environmentally sound building; it makes
it a nightmare for high-flying migratory birds that cannot detect the
glass and try to fly through it. 

It is bad enough that we have landscaped, glass-enclosed lobbies that
confuse and tempt birds to crash into them, but now we have
landscaped, glass-enclosed roofs as well! This is just one more
nightmare for our migratory birds while they navigate through Chicago.
So, while this building might be people-friendly, it certainly is not
bird-friendly. 

It is a wonderful thing that builders are becoming environmentally
aware, but it angers me that this building has garnered so much praise
and recognition as being eco-friendly (making it a possible model for
future buildings) when in reality it poses a tremendous threat to our
migratory birds. 

Barbara Shaw, 
Irving Park

 

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