This letter referred to in a recent post was lost in a ODN meltdown – here it is repeated as the message is important

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LOSS OF LAST THREE SEMI-NATURAL RIVER BOTTOM LOTS IN OLIVER

Within the past 3 weeks, the only sizeable parcels of semi-natural floodplain land left within town boundaries have been completely cleared and grubbed without any rational explanation for doing so that I’ve learned from any source. I simply can’t believe that the residential or commercial sector is so buoyant in Oliver that multiple hectares of floodplain needed to be instantly stripped of all vegetation to prepare the land for development at this moment!

Surely some of us can see the irony in celebrating the restoration of 2 river oxbows at the northern edge of town last year and a year later within a kilometre of that hard-won restoration project that took 10 years to bring to fruition, we lose the last of any semi-natural riparian habitat within town boundaries in one fell swoop. Home and/or refuge for all kinds of mammals, birds, reptiles, and probably many species of smaller critters has been suddenly transformed into 3 wretched barren patches of mineral soil that will frequently blow onto neighbouring properties this spring and gradually turn into huge weed plots as summer progresses. Individually and collectively, those of us who live in this wonderful little town have to devise better ways of doing business in order to help protect and conserve our deteriorating environment.

Perhaps, there is some logical explanation for this recent sad devastation. I’d like to believe that the destruction has been carried out as part of a plan to implement some unannounced public good. If not, then town council needs to amend current bylaw(s) or enact new ones SOON to curtail similar needless destruction of our environment from happening again.

This is the first letter to any editor or any newspaper that I have ever written. I have never felt that people pay serious attention to events that do not directly benefit or threaten them and even less attention to the opinions of others’ personal views on matters that are (or should be) of public interest. This environmental destruction does, I should think, directly negatively impact nearly all of us who recreate along the river dikes or live in the vicinity of the damage. It also degrades the quality of life of all who call Oliver home, whether they acknowledge that fact or not.

Paul Doyle