The Editor:
It is most disappointing that in early April 2024, 20 old-growth trees — some estimated to be 75 to 150 years old — were cut down from lots 3536 and 3538 on Hastings Street in Port Coquitlam for development.
This included many western red cedars, which are dying in large numbers across the province due to climate.
While there is a need to provide higher-density housing in our area, developers should be held accountable to the similar tree protection laws applicable to private owners, specifically Port Coquitlam bylaws 5.1a, 6.3a, 9.1, 9.3 and 11.3.
Why are theses laws not being enforced for developers? Nature is not ours to destroy.
As seen on a few lots on Laurentian Street in Coquitlam, it is possible to work around existing heritage trees while building new homes.
It simply requires some thought and good-willed planning that values our most prized asset of tree canopies.
The Tri-Cities are suffering an alarming rate of reduced tree canopies: From 2014 to 2020, according to a UBC report, the hard surface area of Metro Vancouver increased by five per cent.
Although Metro Vancouver has set a goal of 40 per cent for urban forests by 2050, that goal is already way off, with currently only 31 per cent and rapidly decreasing.
According to Alex Boston, an independent policy consultant and former executive director of the Renewable Cities at Simon Fraser University (SFU), the latest numbers in the Metro report mean any chances the region could meet its 2030 targets are now "blown out of the water.”
The B.C. government provided an initial $10-million investment for 8,000 free air conditioning (AC) units to eligible customers.
But trees in neighbourhoods naturally keep areas cooler, reducing the need for air conditioners in our hotter summers and therefore lessening the strain on our electric grid and our provincial government’s expenditures.
Let us resolve to propose new civic and provincial legislation limiting, managing and controlling tree cutting with a better balance of protection from climate change and the quality of life in communities over that of developers.
- Oscar Raasveldt, Port Moody
