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Ducks raising dander in R.H.
muscovy ducks
Muscovy ducks have distinctive red waddled faces. - photo by Cornell University photo

Some problematic ducks will soon be removed from various areas throughout Richmond Hill after a decision by the Richmond Hill City Council.
At its regularly scheduled meeting Feb. 7, the council unanimously approved a contract with the United States Department of Agriculture for the removal of Muscovy ducks from areas in the city.
The ducks have caused problems citywide, Parks and Tree Department Director Harvey Lashley said. But the ducks are more of a headache in the Piercefield Forest area, Mainstreet Subdivision and Plantation Apartments.
“The USDA came out and spent some time looking at this and they think we have a real problem,” he told the council.
Lashley said these ducks are a very “hardy” breed that is not indigenous to this area. They are also reproducing at an “alarming rate,” he said.
“Numerous times we’ve driven through subdivisions and counted from zero to 90 in just a matter of minutes,” he said. “These ducks will be under your cars nesting, behind your shrubbery and they’ll eat your cat food.”
Not only are the ducks a nuisance in neighborhoods where people have built small fences to keep the ducks off their door steps, Lashley said, they also pose a problem for traffic.
“You’ve probably seen the duck crossing signs over on Harris Trail and sometimes these ducks are run over—they’re a hindrance to traffic,” he said.
Council member Jan Bass also noted the potential health hazard associated with the large quantities of ducks.
“The feces that is all around these neighborhoods is just not acceptable,” she said.
Lashley said the ducks will be removed by a number of methods to include trapping, netting, or any other way the USDA deems appropriate.
Richmond Hill resident Nancy Baker also voiced concern about the ducks. She said people need to be educated about the problems they can cause.
“I know a lot of people like to feed the ducks, but the problem is if you’re feeding them, you’re breeding them,” Baker said. “Our neighborhoods are perfect habitat for them — they have food, they have shelter and they have protection. I’m afraid if you don’t address those issues, within three months you’re going to have another duck problem.”
Mayor Harold Fowler told Baker that the duck problem was something the city was going to have to stay on top of. He also said the USDA has more authority to go in and remove the ducks than the city does.

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Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
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Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
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