[BCNnet] Northerly Island access - Saturday (no sighting reports)

[Randi Doeker - Chicago]

Northerly Island will be open by 5:30am this Saturday morning (May 20).  

(Technically the island is open during daylight -much earlier than 6- but
there are park district gates blocking car access; the gates will be open by
5:30am.)

If you are on the CAS Birdathon, please stop by the island early.  

If you are just out birding, please join COS at 7am for a regular field
trip.  

Help us show the Park District and the City officials that Northerly Island
is an important birding area.  NORTHERLY ISLAND NEEDS TO BE THE "BACKYARD"
THAT BIRDERS CARE ABOUT.

Because...it is definitely the place where every NIMBY group points to as a
solution to their local problem.

Boaters want it to become a huge marina..since the Sheridan Road residents
NIMBY'd a proposed marina out of their neighborhood.

Likewise, the residents on East Randolph, who previously nixed an expansion
of Monroe Harbor, are now organized to get the proposed Children's Museum
out of Grant Park. They keep screaming: Move it to Northerly Island.

And of course, one has to ponder what the Olympics supporters plan for the
island.

Birders are the only nature-based group that can use the island right now.
(The Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy need more/different habitat for
their field trips.) 

Please show up Saturday morning to show the public officials that birders do
care about protecting the island.

Randi Doeker
Chicago