Brush-cut goes too far for some Creek residents

Some Roberts Creek residents were less than impressed by the province's highway maintenance contractor's brush-cutting job last weekend.

Park Avenue resident John Sampson said on Monday that it "looked like a hurricane" had hit his street, along with Beach Avenue and other Creek roadways, after the Capilano Highways Services mower went through the area.

"They are using their big articulated mower to trim not only the grass and blackberries, but trees and hedges fronting properties," Sampson said. "The end result is brutal: shattered tree limbs and debris littering the road and ditches. What was once a beautiful tree-lined street is now a mess.Many neighbours are upset, to say the least."

Sampson said he spoke with the operator before his own trees were brushed.

"I intervened so he wouldn't hack ours to death," he said. "I don't quibble with the fact that something needed to be done, but this is not the machine to use. There were limbs two inches thick that had been hacked, and that unit doesn't do a clean job. It leaves an unsightly mess."

He said the provincial contractor should not only use a different machine in the future, but should give notice to homeowners, so they can prune their own trees with the correct tools.

Contacted Tuesday, Capilano Highways Ser-vices vice-president Steve Drummond said his office had not received any complaints about the weekend brushing, and he disputed Sampson's claim that mowing took place on private property.

"Everything we cut was well within the ditch line," he said.

Crews were out cleaning up debris on Monday, he added.

As for notifying residents, Drummond said ads had appeared in Coast Reporter advising residents that crews would be mowing and brushing in the area.

Little work was done on Beach Avenue itself, he said, except for intersections where the brushing was needed to keep sight lines clear for traffic.

Donna Shugar, Sunshine Coast Regional District director for Roberts Creek, said a resident complained to her about the mower damaging a riparian area on the weekend.

"He said they basically exposed portions of the creek to light, which he was told he wasn't allowed to do, so he found that kind of upsetting. He was also upset that debris was dropped into the creek and on his property," Shugar said Wednesday, prior to a site visit with Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) officials.

Regarding Sampson's complaints, Shugar said she was "familiar with the effect" of the mower on trees.

"It's a very crude, clumsy methodology, no doubt about it," she said. "It takes a long time for cedars to heal after that kind of work."