6 Union Bay 



a series of exposed flats. Man is therefore responsible for the 

 marsh. If the present trend continues, man, by continual 

 filling, drainage, and building, will some day destroy it. In 

 the past few years the city has nibbled at corners and filled 

 low spots so that the acreage has been slowly but steadily 

 shrinking. People frequently visit it— to boat in the deeper 

 water, to fish, trap, or stroll where the firmness of the soil 

 permits. 



The vegetation of the area has been self introduced. No 

 extensive plantings have been made. No landscape gardeners 

 have destroyed its naturalness. Only a few canals have been 

 dredged. They stand naked and bare for a year or two, but 

 then their banks are taken over by the vegetation and they 

 become a part of the marsh scene. No great influence of man 

 is apparent. Nevertheless, part of the area's uniqueness lies 

 in the government control exercised over it. For years, gov- 

 ernment engineers in charge of the locks have pushed but- 

 tons and thus controlled water levels which, unknown to 

 them, have decreed the nature of the marsh program: 

 whether the beggar's-ticks would grow here or there, 

 whether the change in depth would give a temporary ad- 

 vantage to the cattails or loosestrife in their constant battle 

 for territory, whether the shorebirds would find enough 

 exposed flats to justify their stopping on their fall migra- 

 tion, whether Gadwall Cove would be clear of, or clogged 

 with, plant growth. 



My home is but five miles from the center of the city. I 

 can drive to the marsh in less than five minutes. My work is 

 at the University on the hill above the location, not quite a 

 third of a mile away. From the windows of many of the 

 campus buildings I can see the marsh, whose dark waters 

 are surrounded by browns or greens of the marsh vegetation, 

 according to season. The huge freight boats crawl through 

 the canal, looking as much out of place as a black bass might 

 look in a goldfish bowl. The open waters of Union Bay 



