Dear Editor:
Every day I walk with my dog along Trout Creek in Summerland. Shortly before the creek runs into the Okanagan Lake, there is a nature park area. This year and the year before people have hung all sorts of Christmas decorations like bobbles, ribbons and garlands on the trees and bushes.
I understand they think it’s festive, but it makes me really sad when I see the broken Christmas ornaments and all the little glass and sharp pieces on the ground.
Birds are attracted to shiny things like glitter and they will eat them and it might cut them inside and they will have a terrible death.
Dogs and wildlife can cut their paws.
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Some dogs might think that the bobbles are balls, and they could actually swallow them because they are hung so low. In the picture you can see that one ball that has a big hole in it. Maybe it was made by a dog biting it. I also found the broken pieces from this one on the ground, mixed with leaves, etc.
I’ve watched people walking by the trees every day, nobody even pays any attention to the trees because they are on their phone or talking to each other, or they are lost in their own thoughts.
So far I’ve only seen one lady who pointed out the decorations to her little girl.
So I ask myself why the people clutter up the beautiful nature? I hope it’s not for the dogs because they don’t care. For them it’s just a risk of injury. Not for the birds, because they can be killed. Not for the people because they have their own decorations at home.
And now Christmas is over, and no one takes the decorations down. Last year it was the people who look after the park who cleaned it up.
I would understand better if people decorated the trees in town, maybe for the homeless or the elderly who have nobody, but not in the nature park.
On the other side from my town where I also walk my dog, people hang up homemade bird feeders made from milk jugs. They cut holes in them so the birds can go inside and eat. These people even consider the rough edges where the holes are cut so they have covered the sharp edges with duct tape so the birds don’t get injured.
When parents walk their children, they can point out these feeders and teach children that this helps the birds in the winter when they can’t easily find food because of the frost and snow. These feeders are decorated also, with paint and markers.
This is a great way to decorate that still respects nature.
In my opinion, these bird feeders are also festive, but serve a purpose, are cared for and aren’t dangerous for other animals in the park.
I would like to see this instead of Christmas decorations along the creek.
Heidi Weisskopff
Summerland
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