When a nature preserve was set up on a one-hectare property in Trout Creek almost a year ago, the site was intended to serve as a habitat for Lewis’s woodpecker and the screech owl.
But recently, some of the trees in the preserve were cut down, leaving questions about the future of this preserve.
Fewer than 1,000 of Lewis’s woodpecker remain in Canada.
The birds nest in older cottonwood trees. When these trees rot from the inside, they provide a shelter for the birds.
The Woodbridge Nature Preserve has been marked with a prominent sign identifying the area as a preserve.
There is also a wooden fence in place at the site.
Still, the trees have been removed, and some in the area are wondering if additional trees will later be cut down at the preserve, rendering the site useless as a woodpecker habitat.
The trees were removed near an adjacent construction site, at the edge of the preserve property.
The removal had not been not authorized by the municipality.
Environment Canada also has regulations in place restricting the removal of these trees from the preserve.
But such regulations by themselves are of no value unless there is a way to enforce them.
The removal of these trees will be on the agenda at a special meeting of municipal council on the evening of Sept. 6.
The decision made that evening will determine whether there is more to the Woodbridge Nature Preserve than simply a sign and a fence.
If little is done to penalize those who remove trees from this preserve or other protected areas, then designating the site as a nature preserve in 2017 was nothing more than a symbolic gesture.
A much stronger message is needed, not just for this preserve but for other natural areas in place now or created in the years to come.
If trees and habitat areas are to be protected, or if a preserve is created, tough penalties are also needed to ensure the site will endure.
