If you can't say anything good about something or someone, don't say anything at all. You've certainly heard this saying. Can you abide by it? I certainly can't. Imagine all the things I'd have to bottle up if I tried. I think it would be worse than trying to contain steam and the results of doing so would certainly cause a rash or worse. So that's my excuse for what I'm about to write.

This week it was announced in a local newspaper that a bird-viewing platform had been constructed at the marsh. I've know for some time that there was a project underway to make a wheel chair accessible path around the south side of the marsh. I also knew that a bird-viewing platform was going to be a part of this project. I even went on a walk some time ago with a group of people with one person in a wheel chair to see the condition of the present trail. At that time I pointed out a very good spot for a bird-viewing platform and that was that.

Some weeks later a gravel path was built on the west side of the marsh where the pavement ends and it ran up to and over the little bridge where the water control structure is located. The trail continued on the south side following a power pole right of way and more or less came to a stop where the trail enters a seepage area. As I was walking on the south side of the marsh some time after that. I saw some red spray paint on a few spruce trees in the vicinity of the area I'd pointed out as a good spot for a bird viewing platform. I assumed it was a good sign.

Some weeks before the newspaper announcement, I walked around 100 Mile Marsh and came upon a well-built, lovely platform along the trail. The platform was about 30 yards east of the spot I'd indicated, and in a low spot with an extensive cattail margin, far from any waterfowl. I estimated the view from the platform to be about 15-degrees left to right. And, if you are looking at birds in a marsh, a 180-degree view is preferable. The structure was beautifully well built, but a bird viewing platform it wasn't.

Perhaps the platform was intended as a destination for wheel chair users circumnavigating the marsh. However that brings me to another problem with the project. For years now I've told anyone who would listen, (some of whom I thought were people of influence,) that the trail in the seepage area should be moved. I pointed out an alternative solid spot skirting the perpetually swampy areas. The only reason a trail couldn't be built along the solid edge would be if the land did not belong to the marsh property. And I've never heard of the land belonging to anyone other than the town.

But, as has happened many times before, loose gravel was strewn along the saturated section of the path, and culverts were installed to try and alleviate the bogginess. In a few months the muck will once again swallow the sand and gravel, and the culverts will be ejected from the muck. Unless you have forearms like the Hulk, drive a four-wheel drive wheelchair, or drive a wheelchair sporting pontoons, you will not be able to make your way through this spot.

So I've had my say. But I am not just being mean spirited. There is not a birder anywhere who would call the platform structure, as beautiful as it is, a bird viewing platform. It is a platform tucked away alongside a trail, a trail that is questionably wheelchair friendly.

So why comment on something that is already a done deal? I suppose because I think that the money for a truly functional bird viewing platform was used to build what is essentially a well made deck along the marsh trail. As for the trail, I comment on it because I hope that one day someone will agree that a seepage area is no place for a pathway, and move the path to more solid ground. You can write me off as a Marsh-wiggle if you wish. (For those of you who don't know what a Marsh-wiggle is, it's a creature from the Narnia series of childrens books by C. S. Lewis.) A swamp-loving creature with a pessimistic attitude; in this instance, quite nicely describes me.