Editor:
I am depressed. I can’t get the image of those Sandy Hook burn piles out of my head. So I do what heals me, and take a walk through Connor Park. It’s a preserved mature forest and I know with certainty it won’t be clear-cut one day.
Back to those burn piles. Why is there no legislation to at least allow a firewood contractor to take away useful wood? And why burn in the first place? The reasoning is if you leave it on the ground it becomes a fire hazard. The wood gets stacked into piles to be burned when the fires danger is minimal. This exchange robs the forest floor of nutrients and rain washes soil away. You then get wood of lesser quality. This wood is not as attractive to logging companies, so off they go cutting down rich, diverse forests.
The people of Roberts Creek deserve a low level accessible park too, one that will help ease the stress of the wanton destruction we see all around us. But instead they were give three separate patches of forest with cutblocks in between. Oh, and a new roof on the community hall to start division and stop all the bothersome protesting.
We log very badly in B.C. The 24-hour-a-day mills are closing. Anyone could see that coming. Pulp seems to be doing well, as much of the forest wood is good for little else.
We have local heroes among us, who take this seriously, and some have struggled for 20 years to keep this one patch of forest for all of us. A place to find some hope and health while our world changes. No matter the outcome in Clack Creek, they have my respect.
Keep your chins up and find a patch that’s safe if you can. Life can be hard and we all need some mothering from nature.
Gord Bell, Halfmoon Bay
