Jane Emerick
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The recent removal of trees along the Discovery Trail in front of the future sight of Wal-Mart has "left the trail basically desecrated," according to the president of the Squamish Trails Society, Bob Brant.
He said the removal of the trees was not only unnecessary it is also inconvenient, unsafe, and unpleasant."The cutting of the trees didn't have to happen and it has decreased the quality and the ambiance of the trail," said Brant. "The Discovery Trail has basically been desecrated."
Brant described the trail as a major pedestrian route used daily by commuters and is hoping the district will compensate the rest of the trail for what is happening in front of the future Wal-Mart. To help achieve this, the Squamish Trails Society has created a position statement they submitted to Mick Gottardi, director of community development for the District of Squamish.
"We are hoping the district will come to the table and improve the remainder of the discovery trail," said Brant. Leslie Keith is a member and former leader of the Tantalus walking group. She said the group of walkers used to use the trail, but wouldn't be using it anymore.
"Cutting down the tress just makes that part of the trail that much noisier," she said. "It has destroyed the ambiance of that part of the trail."
Ron Enns is a community member who also uses the trail daily to transport his daughter back and forth to school. He thinks the value of the trail makes it worth protecting from developers by the district. "It is extremely important for this time of rapid growth in the community to maintain the current trails and the trees that line them," he said. "Through negotiations between the district and developers these trees should have been maintained. It is a shame that these trees have been cut down, they didn't need to be cut down."
Gottardi argued the opposite of this and said, due to highway construction, there was no other option than to remove the trees.
"It is not a district property. We have recognized that the highway project must go ahead, and there are no other options," he said.
According to Gottardi, the trees recently removed were specifically the result of highway expansion, and not a case of allowing for a clear view of the future Wal-Mart. However, he did say the visual impacts of Wal-Mart would be of consideration in the future and more trees could be removed with this issue in mind.
As the community developer, Gottardi said he didn't feel it was his place to comment on whether or not the loss of the tress would reduce the esthetic value of the trail or the view for motorists on the highway."Esthetics are very subjective, so I can't answer that," he said.
Mayor Ian Sutherland said the notion of the trees coming down was nothing new to council and that the removed trees would eventually be replaced with different trees.
"I think we all understood that the trees would go down and that a new buffer would go up with different kind of greenery," he said. "The whole object of building those stores on the highway was for visibility so you have to have a green space that offers visibility to the location of the stores."
Despite Gottardi's comments, the mayor said the removal of the trees was a joint project between the Ministry of Transportation and Wal-Mart.
"It's a combination of being done for the highway project and for the Wal-Mart site, so that's what's happening out there. It's a combo effort," he said. "It's no secret that it was for visibility so with that visibility it's going to have to mean removing trees."
The mayor said the detrimental effects of the tree removals will not impact the trail indefinitely.
"I'm not saying it's not going to be detrimental," he said. "Like any construction project there probably will be a period of time where it's not as picturesque as it was before. But the intent is when the project is complete, it'll be as good or better than it was before."
In regards to the position statement, Gottardi said he would like to look at what needs to be done to the trail, after the work takes place.
"We will be taking it into consideration," he said. "We recognize certain work needs to be done and after that is done we will look at the situation and see what is needed to be done afterwards."
