Good Morning.

I've noticed something interesting in my early-morning arrivals on the college campus where I work.


Pull up your favourite mapping application, and check "Bentley University". For starters, the apartment complex due south, called "Renew Waltham" is where you can find the TriSec compound.

But switch to satellite and zoom out a bit. You'll see the campus surrounded by conservation land. On the left is a large wooded swath called Storer Conservation, and on the right is the Girl Scout Camp Cedar Hill.

Every morning, I take great joy in walking around the library at the top of the hill. I can see the sun rise, there's a small view to the west, and the meticulously landscaped green and healthy-looking trees all make for your typical pastoral New England college setting.

Except - the campus is utterly devoid of any kind of animal life.

It's actually mystifying. All those trees? Not one squirrel. No birds chirping, not even a bunny roaming around the grounds. (I literally trip over them on the bike trail walking to work every morning.) Not even the bane of our existence, the Canada Goose, can be found on the campus.

That actually astonished me, as living across Lyman Pond from the campus, my neck of the woods is overrun by them. We evidently live "on the wrong side of the pond" in that regard.

I eventually cornered one of the groundskeepers and asked him about that. He told me that they actually put some kind of chemical on the grass that makes it taste bad, so the geese stay away.

A quick search led me to Methyl Anthranilate, which curiously is derived from grapes.



It's natural, right? It's derived from grapes. In my admittedly brief research, every source states that it's "safe for humans and pets".

But my observations tell me otherwise. I don't see any deceased animals on campus, but the grounds crew would quickly dispose of any such things. What I do see is a dead zone in the middle of a conservation corridor in Waltham. Go back to your trusty Google. All the green patches in this city are connected by a seven-mile trail called the Western Greenway.

Bentley sits near the beginning of the trail near the Lyman Estate and Stonehurst at the bottom left of the map. I'm not sure what, if any, effect the campus "dead zone" has on the wildlife in this area, except to be jarring in it's absence. When I am at the top of the campus, I can hear birds chattering, but along the treeline at the Girl Scout Camp where they don't spray the repellent. I've also seen turkeys along the fence line, a deer, and hawks orbiting overhead, so it's not a wasteland.

But if I noticed it - I'm sure others have too. I wonder if the campus of Brandeis at the other end of the city has a similar effect in their neighborhood?