Thanks to the one person who responded with information about the transformation of the Lorain impoundment. It would be a shame if places like this can just wink out without a peep from us. But if nobody else has anything further to offer about this issue, I'll shut up and we can just stay home and watch our feeders. The most paranoid interpretation of the recent bulldozing I've heard is that they're building scenic duck ponds for a ritzy lakeside residential area, or--Lorain residents are used to this one--a casino. All the soil out there is dredged from Ohio's most polluted stream, the Black River, and it's hard to see how anyone would want to live there. The most likely explanation is to be found at the US Army Corps of Engineer's site, at http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Newsroom/news_releases/docs/2007/Lorain%20Berm%20Raising_26.pdf and more completely at the USEPA site, at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPACT/2007/March/Day-06/i1007.htm , but it's still a bit odd. The local Audubon chapter is watching this closely, as the Lorain impoundment is a designated Important Bird Area. They have asked that observers send them lists of bird species and numbers seen there in the past, and in times to come: send to Harriet Alger at [log in to unmask] . Many of us have birded at dredge spoil impoundments along the Lake Erie shoreline since the '60s when their construction began. Much more importantly, many birds have found feeding and roosting areas in these pockets of relatively wild habitat along the evermore crowded shore. If you have ever spent time birding at several Toledo sites, including Bayshore, or Huron, or Lorain, or Cleveland (Gordon Park/Dike 14), Fairport Harbor, Ashtabula, or Conneaut, you will recognize the importance of these and similar facilities to birds. The Corps' Web site has lots of fascinating educational pages on these sites. Check out http://www.usaceiscconf.org/PDF/presentations/June27/SAME6.27.07Cadillac/ISC_DetroitWorking.pdf for what seems to be a draft Powerpoint presentation for engineers: here you can see aerial photos of various Ohio sites, where Dike 14 is described as having been "turned over to the City of Cleveland," and "Now a Popular Bird Watching Sanctuary"----well, maybe----and that the "Future Planned Use" of the Lorain impoundment is as a "City of Lorain Park and Entertainment Complex." Hmm. There is an excellent tutorial on these impoundments (called CDFs, or Contained Disposal Facilities), but regrettably I cannot refind it on this huge site; be aware that visiting certain sections of this military site may identify your e-mail address to the government: this has happened to me. Anyway, we've developed the whole lakefront--even the areas we call refuges and wildlife areas--for human uses, and paradoxically (with a few exceptions) the basins we constructed to impound our pollution have become the wildest bird habitats along the shore. The pressures to convert them to human uses, or to allow them to rest in the interim as monocultures of introduced weeds, are enormous. As usual, we birders may have to take our last stand in sewage ponds, dredge spoil impoundments, abandoned quarries, and strip mines, so keep your boots on. Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]