Dear editor:
Having lived on the North Shore since 1921 and in West Vancouver since 1950 I feel moved to comment on West Vancouver’s proposed tree protection bylaw.
The trees in question are mostly hemlock, Douglas fir and red cedar, forest trees growing in a residential environment. Well watered and fertilized with no competition, their growth rates are phenomenal – hemlock and fir 16 times, red cedar 25 times the normal forest rate. The trees are exploding.
Restricted by driveways, house foundations, stone or concrete walls, the root systems cannot expand.
From my house in the heart of Ambleside I can count more than 20 trees over 30 metres in height. These are in a group of houses ranging in value from $2 million to over $30 million.
Nature ensures that every standing tree will eventually fall. Considering the above, the intent of the bylaw should be reversed – trees that are over 35 centimetres in diameter should be removed. To do otherwise will result in the rapid growth of huge top-heavy evergreens with constricted root systems inevitably causing disaster, debris and even deaths when they fall.
James R Thomson
West Vancouver
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
