Dear Editor,
At Monday’s council meeting, I attended as a delegation and presented a five-minute talk.
It was disappointing seeing Councillor Bob Long flip-flop, join the tree lobby group, and re-activate oppressive tree bylaw 5071 .
Procedurally, it appears disingenuous that I have to give my name and address before I can talk to council as a delegate, yet Anna R does not, for privacy reasons.
We don’t even know if she lives in Langley.
Cathleen Vecchiato also gave her name/address in Brookswood before her talk.
Then Anna R’s public power-point presentation has no problem encroaching on other people’s privacy, as she shows aerial photographs with our personal civic addresses and street photographs of our private property, without even asking our permission.
Anna R’s presentation was misleading.
She erroneously stated that our property was clear-cut, which it is not. We have some 134 trees, of which 33 are over eight inches in diameter, and we planted many of them ourselves. We selectively harvested some mature trees around the riding ring clearing on our 644-foot-deep 2.4 acres.
She showed pictures of a secluded bird’s nest in a tree. Is that an Internet photo? Are we supposed to gasp?
She showed pictures of cleared land and a logging truck with logs on it. That’s what logging trucks do as they take timber to market. Are we supposed to be shocked in disbelief? If you go further up the valley or to any community on Vancouver Island, logging trucks are a daily thing.
Carry Ross talked as a delegate, and was also misleading. She tried to refute the wild fire risk issue I raised.
She went on and on about soil, water retention, and stream flow velocities, etc. which does not apply to this type of soil.
In Brookswood/Fernridge we have a course gravel substrate where the water quickly drains into the ground to the aquifer, with minimal runoff.
My point was that clearing timber to create additional fire breaks is good to give firefighters a chance to control spread. That means thinning the trees is better, much like most of Brookswood is.
Of course, you don’t cut trees in riparian areas near the streams and watercourses.
We really need some councillors, like Bob Long, Kim Richter, David Davis, Steve Ferguson, and Michelle Sparrow, to get real and quit overreacting to the organized protesters’ every move, and respect our private property rights.
Nineteen out of 20 visits in my Fernridge neighbourhood signed the petition against tree bylaws and to uphold private property rights.
This is B.C., where forestry is a traditional prime industry, where we should appreciate wood products and respect the important jobs for our people.
Roland Seguin, Fernridge