The Livable Blog

Well, the 40th Earth Day and 1st Mother Earth Day has passed quietly. But something seems to have changed for the better, at least in the South of Fraser media - the Gateway freeways are being clearly identified as the threats to our Mother Earth they are.

For example, the Surrey Leader's Earth Day editorial read:

Like many 40-year-olds, maybe Earth Day and its proponents are facing a mid-life crisis of sorts; a period of reflection on accomplishments and regret over missed opportunities.

Locally, there are many examples of both.

A truck highway (the South Fraser Perimeter Road) is being built that will separate the community from a historically rich waterfront in North Delta, and broaches the edge of the “lungs of the Lower Mainland,” Burns Bog.

The Port Mann Bridge is being super-sized at great cost to accommodate an ever-increasing army of vehicles, while an under-funded TransLink struggles to maintain transit service. http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/opinion/91649429.html

The Pilgrimage to Burns Bog gets prominent coverage:

Burns Bog 'sacred,' pilgrimage organizers say

Photo: Karl Perrin puts up posters advertising the April 25 Pilgrimage to Burns Bog.
Rob Newell / Black Press

It’s a cathedral with lofty and leafy green spires.

There are fallen tree trunks for pews.

And there lies enough water in shallow basins for mass baptisms.

For those taking part in the annual Pilgrimage to Burns Bog on April 25, the wilderness area is sacred. Sacred enough to consider the bog land to be a holy place, deserved of their protection.

And they will walk to it and then revel in the quiet, natural beauty they feel is threatened by development and highway expansion in Delta.

[snip]

Its location, pretty much the centre of the Lower Mainland, is a prime one. So is the fact that it is home to a multitude of species (one count puts it at 24 mammals and 150 birds), some of which are rare such as the Sandhill Crane.

“The bog is not just rare where it is in the Lower Mainland, but in the world,” Perrin says. “And visiting it is truly a spiritual experience.”

“There’s a multitude of species that consider Burns Bog to be their home,” adds Hudec who is a Sister of Charity with an MA in Earth Literacy. “And in that way it becomes a sacred place not to be destroyed. It’s also the last bog on the west coast, so we have to care for it.”

The hike, which starts on nearby Annacis Island, crosses the Alex Fraser Bridge and ends at the Delta Nature Reserve, allows for only a small-scale observation of the 40-sq.-km. bog, but the event develops an appreciation for what it is, Perrin says.

While the federal, provincial and Delta governments combined with the then GVRD (now Metro Vancouver) in 2004 to preserve 2,042 hectares of the wetlands, Perrin feels the area is still threatened by the South Fraser Perimeter Road.

The Pilgrimage to Burns Bog begins April 25 at 1:30 p.m. on Annacis Island at the Quizno’s at 640 Chester Road. For more information visit pilgrimage2burnsbog.org.

editor@southdeltaleader.com

Then Surrey Leader articles repeatedly point out the folly of freeway expansion:

How healthy is the mighty Fraser?
By Jeff Nagel - Surrey North Delta Leader
[snip]
Port authorities, desperate to develop new dock terminals and use the lower river as a freight highway, have lately been snapping up waterfront land, some farm land.

One of the biggest projects advancing along the shore is the new South Fraser Perimeter Road, which critics say will bulldoze critical habitat and threaten the hydrology of Burns Bog.

Wilhelmson said there’s a widespread sense that development and business trump the environment and that pledges of stewardship, particularly the province’s environmental assessment process, are not to be trusted.

“We still don’t really consider the environment when it comes to developing our shorelines,” she said. “Look at the devastation we’ve done. Yet we still allow projects on shoreline, we still allow dumping. That’s only going to get worse the more people live here.”

The Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C., in its latest Endangered Rivers report, listed the Fraser as the fourth most endangered river in the province. [snip]
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/community/91639814.html

Volunteers bearing witness to nature
Ben West of the Wildnerness Committee at the South Fraser Witness Trail.
Boaz Joseph / The Leader

Upstream from the Port Mann Bridge, adjacent to Surrey Bend, is a strip of land in nearly pristine condition, looking much like Surrey did before people arrived.

Part bog, part thick forest on an undiked floodplain, it hosts an array of largely untouched flora and fauna.

A walk on a path through it reveals tiny bubbling streams glinting from whatever sunlight breaks through the thick canopy of moss-covered trees, a beaver dam under construction, and blankets of watercress on still puddles. A garter snake swiftly crosses the path. Above, a soft, musical “cheeriup” reveals a robin navigating its way through branches.

There’s only the barest glimpse of development: a railway storage yard to the east, and the roofs of houses at the top of a cliff on 168 Street north of 108 Avenue can be made out through the trees to the west.

“Pretty much where we’re standing right here is supposed to be four lanes of traffic,” says Tom Jaugelis.

A volunteer with Surrey Environmental Partners, Jaugelis spent several rainy weekends over the winter clearing out a narrow path, about three kilometres long (two as the crow flies) through the at-risk wetland.

It became the first leg of the South Fraser Witness Trail, a partnership of the Wilderness Committee (formerly bearing the Western Canada name) and Surrey Environmental Partners.

The urban wilderness – accessible on the C74 bus route – is what supporters hope is a bulwark against the Gateway project’s proposed South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) route.
[snip]
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/community/91637544.html

Earlier in the week, Brian Lewis of The Province used the South Fraser Freeway as a prime example of government arrogance costing votes:

Huntington and her Delta constituents, you see, have seen all this before, in their own backyard.

They've seen an old and tired B.C. Liberal government resurrect well-worn, obsolete project ideas, ignore modern viable alternatives and, finally, ram them through despite public outcry.

They saw it with the controversial South Fraser Perimeter Road, which is now under preliminary construction in Delta and Surrey and, like Site C, is destroying significant amounts of farmland. The idea of the perimeter road was kicked around for years but still trumped more current options for moving Deltaport freight.

They saw it again when the Campbell government destroyed a Tsawwassen neighbourhood by choosing to run a high-voltage overhead transmission line through its heart to Vancouver Island, rather than bury the line or run it along a new non-residential route via Roberts Bank.

At the time, I said if the Campbell government can behave like this in Delta's backyard, it's capable of similar behaviour in other backyards. Subsequently, it was the B.C. Liberals' actions in Delta that led to Huntington's upset election as B.C.'s only independent MLA last spring.

[snip]

"I wonder what kind of province we will be passing on to the next generation?" Huntington asks. "I hope it's not just pavement and cement."

blewis@theprovince.com

The tide has turned against freeway expansion. But that does not mean that the provincial government won't arrogantly plow ahead with cutting everything down to the last school band program to fund a $2 billion gift to property speculators and car dealers. This is the time to get out and put an end to any idea they have that the South Fraser Freeway could be built without a major political cost.