Email dated July 21, 2020 from JOCELYN SKRLAC, Subject: Agenda Item - tonight’s meeting
Email from Jocelyn Skrlac opposing the wholesale removal of trees and arguing that replanting does not replace the destroyed ecosystem.
Agenda Item - tonight’s meeting
From: JOCELYN SKRLAC
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 2:49 PM
To: Info Address info@viewroyal.ca
Subject: Agenda Item - tonight’s meeting
Dear Mayor Screech and councillors,
Re: The subject of tree removal for housing development on 9 Erskine Lane
It is my belief that municipalities need to seriously consider a stronger, bolder approach to the effect upon our health and environmental well-being when contemplating the removal of treed areas for the development and expansion of housing needs.
Developers build housing for two reasons:
- To make themselves a profit on their investment;
- To provide structures they deem to be “in demand” so as to ensure that anticipated profit.
In our capitalist society there is nothing wrong with either motive. Indeed, some developments are visionary additions with long-lasting benefits for the community and the environment in which they are constructed.
The current practice of most developments seems to require tearing down and scouring of land before construction can begin. This may be okay when replacing existing structures’ footprints with newer structures but this is not the case in the 9 Erskine Lane Development Proposal which currently requires the removal of forested areas of established growth trees before construction can take place.
Like most construction developments on previously pristine land, the proposal is to replant new trees and landscape the area in a groomed manner once constructions are completed in order to give the appearance of an eco-friendly development.
The trouble with this simplistic thinking is that it fails miserably to replace the entire eco-system supported by that forest. The trees may be the biggest and most obvious forms of life sources for birds and other animals that our human eyes can see. It is what our eyes don’t see - the vast network of insects that are the base of the food chain that we all rely upon for our very existences - that is also destroyed, usually forever.
Our environment affects the health of ALL living creatures including the very bugs that help keep plants pollinated and are either directly or indirectly responsible for multiple food sources for higher life forms, including we humans. Destroying their environment is not easily replaced by landscaping shrubbery, however green it may be. When bugs cease to exist, higher life forms will soon follow.
As our Town of View Royal leaders, your council declared “a climate emergency” not too long ago. The good health of our environment is dependent upon the good health of our climate and vice versa. Science, logic and common sense have shown us that trees are a very large part of the solution to help overcome our current climate crisis.
By consciously retaining the existing forested area of older growth trees at 9 Erskine Lane, View Royal Council will be making a hugely beneficial and credible statement about your serious intent to take bold steps to address the huge climate emergency we are now facing. I have faith that you all have the courage to do so.
Yours truly,
Jocelyn Skrlac
#501-288 Eltham Rd,
View Royal
Sent from my iPad