- - - - - - - Langley Free Press Welcomes Your Comments - - - - - - - - - Name Email URL is optional
There is logic in everything I read in this article. Langley has an opportunity to lead the whole lower mainland in how environmental issues should be dealt with. With the heavy leaning towards developers' interests that are evident everywhere, it will take an enormous amount of pressure to change the trend. Langley Township has the open space to show how it can be done, but it appears that the present administration lacks members with the necessary foresight.
Well said, Cathleen! And greetings from Ottawa where Mayors and Councillors from across Canada are gathering this week to discuss sustainability. This is an important topic to all of us and I'm so pleased that both Councillor Kositsky and I are here this week representing Langley. Perhaps, Councillor Kositsky will have a Notice of Motion or 2 to make on the topic of sustainability once he returns. Judging by the way he and the rest of Council have been voting to cut down trees lately, any ideas would help!
I thnk more councillors in Ottawa would contribute to global sustainability. Especially if they keep Mel.
Here she is again spreading the same OLD HORSEMANURE all over Langley.. What about the birds and beavers They can move the province of British Columbia is a big place I am sure there is a few trees left for them. Maybe we need federal protection laws from crows after all the finishmore nests than the chainsaws ever will. The sound of chainsaws and bulldozers in Cambell Heights is the sound of prosperity. It will bring factories and jobs so we can pay taxes to support old age pensions and healthcare. On the other hand we could send the jobs to China and Brazil you want to see degradation go there Leave us working stiffs alone we want a future to
Speaking of Brazil, A-man, did you know that the lungs of the world are the rain forest in Brazil along the Amazon. Did you also know that individuals & corporations with your same bent on prosperity are cutting and slash burning massive amounts of forest annually for progress's sake. Basically its like invasive surgery. Imagine your lungs being cut away piece by piece every year. We all need someone to speak for our forests and wildlife and that is why we are ecstatic than Cathleen is doing her part as one of the much needed environmental consciences for Langley. Gosh knows the Township Council trys to speak a good story on the environment, but does not walk the talk!
Mel will find the nearest nuetral corner as usual, and then wait for a safe footing before he takes any sort of a strong stand. You're on your own down there Kim.
"And, where will the wildlife and birds go?" asks Cathleen.
Perhaps to the 78 percent of the Township that is in the agricultural land reserve, that can't be developed.
Of course, that's only 155 square miles. Larger than a couple of European countries, to be sure, but not enough for a die-hard environmentalist. Nothing is ever enough.
Of course, 11 percent of the entire land base of British Columbia is now is now protected park land, thanks to the Glen Clark government Kim Richter supported so vigorously as a candidate. That's not enough either.
Cathleen and Kim will never be satisfied until every square inch of Langley is under a development ban. 78 percent just doesn't cut it.
It's fascinating that Cathleen waited about five minutes after moving here before appointing herself the leader of Langley's environmental movement.
Pundit,
Gotta clear something up here, the ALR doesn't protect natural lands and wildlife areas, it is designed to ensure that prime agricultural land is not razed for condos. It is intended to ensure that we still have a food growing capacity in the prime fertile areas of the valley.
ALR lands, for the most part, are pretty lousy habitat as the monoculture and constant working of the land leaves little opportunity for wildlife communities of any decent complexity to develop. Cathleen’s point is well taken as much of the development lands that were recently cleared were relatively old first growth forests (some early second growth) that were sufficiently well developed to have quite good habitat values.
Well said Blair, and Kudo's to Cathleen for her stance on the environment and our sensitive eco system.
Talking about Brazil and the lungs of the world being the rainforest which is being decimated by the minute twigs a question in my mind.
My husband's family is asthmatic, which can, at times, make breathing very problematic. It's interesting to note that our new PM is prone to Asthma as well. Could we expect any help from this new gov't on enviro relating to health issues? Should be interesting.
A-man and Pundit, you need to listen to Joni Mitchell's song again...."they paved paradise and put up a parking lot". Guys like you won't be happy till the wild life is gone, no more flowers and trees, the air we breathe so noxious we will all be wearing oxygen to leave the house.
Couldn't have said it better myself, Pundit!! Amazing how also Walnut Grove is now the epitome of a sustainable community on how areas should be developed, when these very same people/groups were so opposed to it when it was at the same stage as Willoughby over twenty years ago. Talk about hypocrisy!!
Pundit should get back into her cage.
Blair, it's fascinating how authoritative an environmentalist can sound while actually subtracting from the universal knowledge base.
You write: "Cathleen’s point is well taken as much of the development lands that were recently cleared were relatively old first growth forests.."
There is no first growth forest in the Township of Langley, nor has there been for nearly 100 years. The area was completely cleared around the turn of the century.
You say the agricultural land reserve "is intended to ensure that we still have a food growing capacity in the prime fertile areas of the valley."
Most of the food grown in Langley, and we grow it by the tonne, comes from greenhouses sitting on concrete pads. Most of the land in the agricultural land reserve in Langley is not currently under cultivation, nor has it been for decades, nor can it be economically cultivated. In fact, were it not for our bizarre agricultural subsidies that keep farmers in the developing world in utter poverty, a good portion of the outdoor agriculture we have now would simply not exist.
The agricultural land reserve mainly provides inexpensive acreage for horse enthusiasts.
Vechiatto and Richter seem to argue that a relatively small corner of the Township designated for high-density urban growth for the past 30 years, i.e. Willoughby, needs to be preserved as a nesting site.
Pundit,
You confuse first growth with old-growth. First growth is biological shorthand for primary succession forests, (i.e. coastal alder forests which made up a majority of the area cut near 200th Street). I can understand your confusion, however, as a quick Google search does demonstrate that the term is often mis-used (by the looks of it usually by tourist groups who wouldn’t know any better) by the media who think it sounds the same as old-growth. My apologies for using shorthand where more precise language would have been more appropriate.
As for your second point, the fact that most of our farmland is not used for farming does not invalidate the fact that the ALR was designed to protect agricultural land for agricultural uses. Unfortunately a good proportion of the land sits fallow as speculators have bought the land in the hopes that it will be released from the ALR at which point it should more than treble in value.
Finally the point Ms. Vecchiato seems to be making is that the Township staff are not doing their best to control the rate and quality of new development and that more care should be taken in approving new developments. While I tend to agree with her points in the balancing act that is municipal politics they are a valid area of disagreement as those who support Mayor Albert’s views of development will surely agree. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you may be one of those who disagrees with Ms Vecchiato. 
Cheers,
Commenting by HaloScan
