Editor:
One of the tragedies you reported on were the deaths of bears in car collisions on the Coast. Those of us who live on the Coast and those who visit the Coast need to remember that we live together with wildlife and need to respect the fact that they are being pushed into smaller and smaller areas. Such tragedies as you have reported will increase unless the sensitivity to wildlife and the wildlife corridors which do exist, whether marked as bear or deer crossings or not, are respected.
In this regard, the Gibsons Creek which flows under North Road and Reed Road on its way to the sea and the corresponding ravine is in fact, a wildlife corridor. Deer and bears traverse Reed Road regularly at Gibsons Creek and one deer at least has already been killed there.
Why, then, are there no warnings above the Reed Road dip on both sides before the ravine that this is a bear and deer crossing. To add to the hazard, there is not a single speed sign on Reed Road east of North Road all the way to Chamberlin.
Now vehicles try to use that route as a shortcut to the ferry at high speeds for the road.
I ask the Town of Gibsons, the Regional District or Ministry of Transportation why there are not speed signs on Reed Road east of North Road and why there are no warnings of the hidden wildlife corridor in the Gibsons Creek watershed where it crosses North Road.
Finally, I wish this portion of Reed Road was in Elphinstone as your Elphinstone columnist, Faye Keiwitz, has been able to get action on issues through her writing.
Peter Grant, Gibsons
