Monday, October 3, 2016 ANOTHER dead cygnet

Seward, Alaska

On September 30, I counted all five Trumpeter Swan cygnets with their parents. Today, one was missing. Once again, I drove over to the Nash Road wetlands and walked along the roadside on the east side. Sure enough, I found a dead cygnet under the power lines. The force of its fall after the collision with the lines was so hard that its bill was almost completely buried in the ground. It looked like it had been there in the rain, maybe for a few days. It was a very sad sight.

I called the capable rescue staff at the Alaska Sealife Center for them to activate the all too frequent procedure: contact the Seward Electric Department, US Fish and Wildlife Service, pick up the dead swan, and file paperwork.

Since September 8, three of this year's seven cygnets have died from collision with this main transmission line. It remains totally unprotected. No diverters have been installed to help the swans see the lines. They fly and they die. This is illegal and totally preventable.

If you can fire off another letter, phone call, or email to City Manager Hunt and Electric Utility Manager Foutz, please ask them ONCE AGAIN, to get those swan diverters installed ASAP. 

Contact the City Council too through the Seward City Clerk at <Clerk@cityofseward.net>

City Manager Jim Hunt, 907 224-4047, jhunt@cityofseward.net

Seward Electric Department Utility Manager

John Foutz 907 224-0471, jfoutz@cityofseward.net

Carol Griswold