Petaluma City Parks staff are doing the best they can to keep the Lucchesi Park pond and the surrounding area clean, but they are substantially outnumbered by ducks, geese and other wildlife.
From a staff that used to number 17, city parks and landscape manager Ron DeNicola now has only seven parks staff members and no seasonal help for summer projects. They are charged with cleaning and maintaining all city parks.
Even with the help of volunteer groups such as Rebuilding Together Petaluma, which recently targeted six local parks for cleanup, and concerned individuals, keeping parks clean is a major challenge, DeNicola said.
Lucchesi Park pond is a special challenge because of its popularity with hundreds of waterfowl that have set up homestead rights along its grassy shore where they are constantly fed by human visitors.
Although the pond's aerated water is recycled through its fountains, DeNicola said it hasn't been drained since he joined the city six years ago.
He said city maintenance crews do their best to clean dead birds, fish and debris from the water by using long nets, but admits that method is effective only on the southern end of the pond where winds tend to blow garbage toward the bank.
Making the pond even more unsightly this year was a heavy growth of algae that covered it with a heavy green sludge-looking growth.
DeNicola said the algae "just went nuts" because a firm hired to treat the pond quit doing the job without bothering to inform anyone in the city. He said another company has been hired and has begun treating the pond with a natural bacteria that helps eliminate the algae. "It works real well," he maintained.
The waterfowl present an obvious and smelly problem not only in the pond, but on the surrounding path and lawns.
"It is a problem all over the Bay Area," DeNicola said. "Once the birds make a place their home, there is not much you can do about it. We wash down the paths and try to keep them as clean as we can, but there really isn't a lot we can do."
Then, there is the human problem. Despite the presence of an abundance of trash receptacles and recycling bins in the park, visitors continue to leave trash that not only litters the park, but often ends up in the pond where it is not only unsightly, but also a threat to the wildlife.
A few residents still fish for catfish and other warm-water fish species in the shallow pond. Until a few years ago, the Petaluma Kiwanis Club hosted an annual kids fishing derby at Lucchesi. The derby was canceled following complaints that waterfowl were being harmed and sometimes killed by discarded fishing lines, hooks and other equipment.
Fishing is still allowed, and there are receptacles for discarded line and other fishing tackle.
Signage is posted throughout the park, explaining rules for the use of the park and pond. The big problem seems to be that the waterfowl ignore the signage.
(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)
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