Editor: It was with shock that I read “Clear-cutting destroys more of South Langley, (The Times, Sept. 19).
I immediately drove to the location on 198 Street and saw the decimation letter writer Bev Blake spoke of. It was almost a total clear-cutting of 2.5 acres, with the exception of three trees that remain standing at the front south corner where the driveway used to be.
My parents had sold this property about 1991 and the later owners had definitely let the place grow into disarray, which was sad to see, but this was nothing short of shocking for me.
In 1972 my parents built the house that still stands, and the positive here is that it has been newly updated. I lived there all of my teenage years, along with my four siblings, where Dad had us “selectively cut” the densely-treed property. In the early 1980s, my Dad planted the row of cedars across the front to create future privacy.
I watched as someone was cutting branches from these same trees as they lay strewn, bare-rooted across the ground. This is an atrocity that I hope new landscaping can improve, but it will take years to recover the ambience and environment of this beautiful neighbourhood.
Why do people buy into the Fernridge/Brookswood area if they don’t want the trees? There are plenty of other areas in Langley which have already been defaced. I realize that things will change in the name of progress, but how is this progress?
S. Fricker,
Brookswood
