BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following, an open letter to members of Barrie city council, is in response to a story titled 'Sea Cadets relocation, sports field get early OK for south shore,' published May 9. Beth Foster is a local resident and ANFT nature and forest therapy guide.
Greetings Mayor Nuttall and Councillors;
We all agree that facilities for youth are great. Allowing the Sea Cadets to share the space under the Southshore Centre, as long as it is a fair and equitable agreement with the Barrie Canoe and Kayak Club, is a good solution,
However, the proposed site adjacent to the Military Heritage Park is not a good location for a multi-purpose sports field. There are several better locations in Barrie.
Like the Lorax, I speak for the trees. Barrie has chosen to present itself as a Bird-Friendly City and has recently implemented much-needed (though under-enforced?) tree protection bylaws.
Birds live in trees. Without trees, we lose birds and many other segments of the bio-diversity needed in a healthy environment. To suggest that you have picked the area “that will have the least impact on the land,” as Coun. Clare Riepma has said, is to suggest you haven’t looked very hard.
As mentioned in Taking Action: The Top 10 Strategic Priorities in Barrie’s Strategic Plan: “Protection of the natural environment and processes are key to preserving Kempenfelt Bay for generations to come. With climate change on the rise, environmental degradation becoming more prevalent with the overcrowding and misuse of natural and open spaces, heightened development pressures and the increasing frequency of severe weather events, mitigation and preservation are becoming especially important."
In fact, one of your strategic recommendations is to “protect and enhance the existing tree and shrub cover through naturalization and infill planting. Localized planting should include native, riparian species in erosion prone areas, and shoreline plantings that provide shade and shelter for fish to increase aquatic habitat.”
Your proposal runs contrary to both these parts of the plan.
To suggest that cutting down mature trees and paving over open meadow with astro-turf and asphalt can be mitigated by planting saplings is to deliberately misinform the public.
As has been presented in previous council meetings, the bigger the tree, the greater the climate and health benefits for everyone. Large trees can sequester up to 90 times as much carbon as can smaller ones; a 30-inch tree removes 70 times as much air pollution annually as trees with a diameter of three feet or less.
The fundamentals of photosynthesis also work better with mature trees. Almost 70 per cent of all the carbon stored in trees is accumulated in the last half of their lives.
As well as cleaning air, cooling our city, improving mental heath, enhancing natural tourism opportunities in a highly-used part to the Kempenfelt Bay Waterfront Trail, this tree growth adjacent to Kempenfelt Bay helps to protect the shoreline and enhance the threatened fish population and habitat in the bay.
There is space by the Barrie Community Sports Complex for a parade ground/sports field that would not involve removing any trees. Also, the baseball diamond at Queen’s Park, currently not in use and adjacent to the Barrie Armoury, is a more central location.
On Wednesday, I encourage you to honour the intent of Barrie’s Strategic Plan by protecting our environment. We need many more trees, not less.
I am also eager to know the proposed development for the current Sea Cadets building by the Barrie Marina.
I thank you for the work you do and look forward to your response.
Beth Foster
Barrie
