The Habitat of the Charles River White Geese

Until the destruction of their habitat - continuing today - began in 1999, the White Geese lived in an urban wild along the Charles River in Cambridge, stretching about a half-mile on either side of the BU Bridge. To the east, downriver to the Hyatt Hotel, and to the west, upriver to the end of Magazine Beach, the geese had easy access to acres of grassy water meadows they shared with Canada geese, softball and soccer teams, and people in search of the natural world.

At the center of this habitat and the White Geese's social life, focus of their annual mini-migration in late winter, was the nesting area, adjacent to the BU Bridge itself. This they shared with nesting red-tailed hawks, muskrats, and other birds and animals. And until the MDC/DCR removed dead trees at the water's edge, these birds included herons.

Here’s a birds-eye view from Boston, across the Charles, to the White Geese’s habitat in Cambridge. That urban wild stretches along the right riverbank from the small fields by the Hyatt Hotel (pink pyramid), to the goose meadow (hidden by trees), to the large fields of Magazine Beach at the river’s bend.

Note the arched BU Bridge and Grand Junction rail bridge beneath it, the elevated Mass Pike, its Cambridge/Allston exit ramps (top center and right), and Beacon Freight yards. The Grand Junction rail line goes under the Pike from the freight yards to and over the rail bridge. In 2003 Harvard University bought these 51 acres in Boston from the Turnpike Authority for its planned Allston campus.

Another birds-eye view, from the edge of the nesting area, across the Charles to the Citgo sign (foreground previous photo). Grand Junction rail bridge above.

The White Geese’s habitat lies half a mile on either side of the two bridges. This is where highway proponents have long wanted a river crossing to connect the Massachusetts Turnpike to Interstate Route 95 through Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, and Chelsea. (From Inner Belt to Urban Ring.) Harvard’s plans for Allston revived plans for this highway. If implemented, they will completely destroy the urban wild. (Then and Now.)

Cambridge first showed plans to destroy the urban wild in 1997, 4 months after Harvard announced its secret land purchases in Allston (From Inner Belt to Urban Ring, and A Sentinel Species.) Following one section of these plans, in 1999 Boston University and the DCR removed fences at the street, built stairs and a path into the nesting area, and clear-cut and poisoned the land. In 1999 the Cambridge City Council voted $1.5 million to develop Magazine Beach, another part of the plans. Work there began in 2003. Since 2004 Cambridge has attempted to starve the White Geese by keeping them from feeding at Magazine Beach and at the Hyatt riverfront as well.