Editor: Here is the latest occurrence that is just sickening. The latest victim of road kill is a raccoon I noticed on the southbound lane of 208 Street at 82 Avenue.
This was at 8:15 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 10. When I returned less than half an hour later with my camera, someone had removed the victim and I couldn’t locate it at first. I circled around the block again going the opposite direction, and saw two raccoons side up side on the shoulder near the fire hydrant at the southwest corner of 208 Street and 82 Avenue.
This scene is just appalling. It implies that road kill has occurred before and no-one has had the courtesy of informing the Township. They are just piling the victims together, or the two raccoons were killed at the same time. Anyway you look at the situation, it is unacceptable.
To the north of 82 Avenue on 208 Street, we have the massive Yorkson Creek condo project. To the south of 82 Avenue on 208 Street is a one block long mixed field habitat.
Opposite this habitat on 208 Street is another mixed field habitat marked for development by Phoenix. Developers are blatantly ignoring wildlife existing on undeveloped land slated for development, and are just pushing existing wildlife out onto 208 Street.
The Township must do more and residents should be upset by this.
In my Road Kill Report to Township council, I recommended that if wildlife is known to exist, there must be relief habitat for them to escape to, or an SPCA-approved contractor should trap and relocate these animals. In addition, I also developed an excavation protocol, which would provide maximum chances of survival for existing wildlife through a set of best practices to be implemented by developers during excavation.
In particular, they should develop in a direction from the most busy street inwards to the least busy street.
Moreover, the Township does not have an Environmental Assessment (EA) requirement.
The District of North Vancouver and City of Abbotsford both require EAs for projects on or near undeveloped land.
The City of Surrey requires the completion of the Surrey Sustainable Development Checklist for all applications, as well as possibly requiring an environment impact study for developments within the Environmentally Sensitive Areas, as identified in their Ecosystem Management Study.
When will the Township act on preventing unnecessary road kill, particularly on 208 Street? They should be doing public and site crew awareness, as well as putting up wildlife crossing signs and improved lighting on 208 Street.
Patricia Tallman
Langley