Dear editor,
In the spirit of “calling a spade a spade,” please consider the following.
I was at the Re-Think our Watershed open house the other night at NIC.
A very nice gathering of leaders from some of the direct stakeholders in our watershed, plus 240 or so privates interested enough to show up.
Now I arrived in the Valley this past April, after 35-plus years on the prairies; meaning I am a ‘virgin’ as far as the arguments associated with the turbidity and other problems facing this watershed. So here we go.
July and August arrived and brought water restrictions, followed in November to January by boil water advisories.
OK, I can deal with this, but this was a bit of an eye-opener to potential problems in the future. I have followed the discussions in the news and in the letters to the editor.
Now when I go to Goose Spit nearly every morning and gaze at the vistas around the Comox Glacier, I see an awful lot of clear cuts, nearly one on every mountainside. Am I to think this practice has nothing to do with our water problems?
One thing struck me as I listened to the presentations, not once was clear cut logging mentioned or brought forward; or is that something that cannot be mentioned near this general area? Yes I like the spirit of co-operation and respect, however, at some point in time, a spade becomes a spade, or is it simply an entrenched and hands-off “elephant in this room”?
Kris Nielsen
Comox
