Editor:
Emergency Preparedness Week prompts me to write.
The area at the top of Selma Park Road forms a boundary between natural forest and city-type properties. Some of the residents and developers dump their green waste (branches, trees, grass clippings, fruit) into the forest behind our cul-de-sac. A few have had the sensitivity to find an area not right on the path, so that it is at least more visually acceptable.
But I remember last August: it was tinder-dry, after the hottest of summers. The dead branches and dried grasses were perfect kindling should any of the hikers or road bikes give off a spark.
Since last autumn, I've contacted bylaw people at the Sunshine Coast Regional District and the fire department. All agree this is a fire hazard. After months, we were sent a friendly letter from bylaws asking us to stop putting household waste into the back forest. No signage has been put there to remind us, no fines for offenders.
I've been told it is not, after all, District land, but highways department land. There is no attempt by bylaws to find the right person to talk to, just a passing on of a problem that seems to depend solely on written complaint.
Locals think, "It's forest, this is green, it all goes together." Not true. This becomes dried kindling in a very sensitive area. It is not lush rainforest up here. It is dry in summer.
Prevention is so much easier on all of us than fighting an inferno in our backyards.
Deanne Mineau
Sechelt
