There are a lot of resolutions that get brought up and talked about every year and let’s hope this one doesn’t get flushed.The Town of Ladysmith is hunting for stronger legislation that will turn over control and enforcement of our watershed to municipalities.This is not something that will happen over night. Even though we are not at the point of slapping a price tag on the project just yet, the unknown factors at play indicate it could be quite staggering.Many people may not warm to the idea of bringing private land back into the public fold, but keeping access to an essential human right in the public’s hands is never a bad idea.Water is already a hot commodity. We bottle it, colour it, flavour it and sell it for $2 per bottle. Yet if gasoline — a product that goes through a rigorous line of exploration, extraction and processing — goes up a few cents, we all complain.That said, the public is often who we need to be protecting our watersheds from.Recently, several outdoor groups including hikers, hunters and geocachers have set out in the woods in droves on a drive to clean up some of the trash careless (ignorant) people toss instead of throwing it in the proper places.Any attempt to purchase or protect local watersheds must be accompanied by an aggressive informational campaign and increased enforcement.
—The Chronicle
