The anti-bird netting covering the lotus bed at Echo Park Lake was being removed today a few weeks after a resident complained that the nets had trapped and separated ducklings from their mothers, leading some chicks to die. It’s not clear if the removal of the nets was prompted by the complaint or was already in the works. But one member of the crew removing the nets today said the fabric would also be taken down from the lake’s other wetland areas.

The netting was installed about a year ago after ducks and other birds began feasting on the approximately 20,000 aquatic plants that were installed as part of the lake’s clean up. The idea of the nets was to give the plants time to grow and establish themselves before getting picked off by birds. But no one ever said when those nets would be removed.

Thomas DeBoe, who focused attention on the problems caused by the nets, alerted The Eastsider this morning when he saw the nets being removed over the lotus bed. “Today the lotuses are being freed,” he said.

It’s not clear how the aquatic plants will hold up without the nets but the lifting of the black shroud restores the classic vista of the lotus plants floating on the lake and downtown skyscrapers rising in the distance.