I would like to speak for the birds, who depend on the trees and plants that surround White
Stadium for food and shelter and to raise their families.
As the biggest park in Boston, Franklin Park is very important for birds: 223 different species of
birds have been documented in the park. It is the 3 rd most important hotspot for birds in Suffolk
County, meaning it is #3 in Suffolk County for bird species diversity.
Birds are a very important biodiversity measure. Simply put, greater diversity of bird species
indicates a healthier ecosystem, with a diversity of insects, pollinators, trees, plants, fungi, and
microbes to sustain the web of life.
Anything that erodes the park’s natural habitat – even just a little bit – is very bad news for
biodiversity.
Globally, we are in the midst of a catastrophic biodiversity crisis: rapidly accelerating rates of
species extinctions and ecosystem degradation.
The area around White Stadium is a particularly important site for neotropical migratory bird
species. These are birds that fly thousands of miles -- sometimes nonstop! -- four times a year,
between their wintering grounds in Central and South America and their northern breeding
grounds.
Many of these migratory birds come to Franklin Park to spend the summer and raise their
young: Great Crested Flycatchers, Yellow Warblers, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Ruby-
throated Hummingbirds, and Eastern Towhees, just to name a few. That’s in addition to the
familiar resident birds who are here all year round, like Eastern Screech Owls, Barred Owls,
Red-tail Hawks, and Cooper’s Hawks, just to name a few.
Migratory birds are in very big trouble: over 3 billion migratory birds have been lost in the
last 50+ years in this hemisphere due to habitat destruction and other threats.
When they come to Franklin Park, migratory birds are exhausted and hungry and need a safe
place to rest. They need food, like insects, caterpillars, moths, and seeds.
They also need shrubs and bushes – the understory. If you look at the photos of the proposed
stadium redevelopment, it shows a manicured landscape of trees and artificially green grass
and paths, no shrubs or bushes.
The type of landscape – a manicured grass lawn monoculture – that they propose is an
ecological desert. It may look pretty to human eyes, but it’s deadly to biodiversity.
While there are certainly many invasive plants and trees that need to be removed, the current
natural landscape is actually very important for wildlife and biodiversity, even though it may
look “messy” to the human eye.
Dead trees, for example, provide important nesting habitat for multiple species of woodpeckers,
Black-capped Chickadees, Tree Swallows, and others to raise their young.
By destroying and removing dead trees, bushes, shrubs, and undergrowth, they will take away
food and shelter for birds and other wildlife. It’s likely that they will also use leaf blowers,
chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and rodenticides to maintain this ecological desert. All of this will
kill Franklin Park’s biodiversity.
What kind of park kills biodiversity?
People may argue that the stadium redevelopment will only affect a small portion of Franklin
Park’s greenspace.
But this has been the story for all of Franklin Park’s history. The city has slowly and steadily
carved up the park, taking more and more acreage away from the natural landscape to turn it
into an artificial built environment for humans alone: the stadium, the golf course, the Shattuck
Hospital, the zoo.
Olmsted intended Franklin Park to be a respite from the urban, built environment. But now we
are steadily making the park no different from the city and destroying even more of the natural
landscape for the incredible nature, wildlife, and biodiversity that thrive here.
Lastly, bright stadium lights at night will be dangerous to migrating birds. Their navigation
systems become disoriented, and they become "entrained," on the lights, circling endlessly.
They become exhausted and are vulnerable to death by predation, collisions, or exhaustion.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see Franklin Park go from being a safe harbor to a
death trap for birds.
We must fight to keep Franklin Park Natural.
Justine Hanson lives near Franklin Park and has led bird walks in the park in collaboration with
the Franklin Park Coalition since 2021. She is a member of the Brookline Bird Club, Nuttall
Ornithological Club and works for American Bird Conservancy.
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