On the walk to get my morning coffee and muffin, I used to pass a tree stump.
Protruding from the stump was a twig pointing straightforwardly upward.
Seeing that twig reaching up towards the sky from what had been chopped down seemed to me a sign of hope: life reaching up despite death.
Then, one morning, I passed the stump to see the twig slumped sideways because someone had sawed under it.
I was angered and shocked to think that someone could be so cruel. It’s the same mean-spirited mentality as the person who cut the gondola cable — wanting to steal others’ joy.
What would cause someone to be affronted by a twig reaching into the sky? Someone so dwarfed to resent aspiring living nature?
I was more disheartened when I passed a nearby sign with a bid for a re-zoning and re-development project in the area.
Granted, the property had been left to an overgrowth of shrubbery and scruff land.
However, someone came up with the idea to build a condo with spaces for more cars.
I’d often thought in passing that it would be a great spot to put a small parkette for folks.
Alas, the old tree across from it has no idea there are plans for its demolition.
I wish people would wake up to the fact that trees are the lungs of the earth.
Trees suck up carbon dioxide gases from the highway and give oxygen back for us to breathe.
A more responsible use of that spot of land would be to have lawns, plant some trees and put in a few picnic tables.
Instead, we’ll likely be getting more condos with parking spaces for more cars when the infrastructure can’t seem to cope with the over-development as it is.
I’m a fan of the late British writer, natural scientist and conservationist Beatrix Potter, not specifically for the Peter Rabbit books she wrote, but for her philanthropy.
With the royalties from their publication, she purchased land at the Lake District in northwest England and bequeathed over 4,000 acres to the National Trust to protect and conserve the unique, lush countryside, saving the pristine lakes, forest and mountains from development.
If I won the lottery, I’d buy up land for more parks, and also a theatre and bowling alley.
I sorely missed these days.
Maybe it is just me, but I fear the only green we’ll soon see is the green light given to developers to exploit without giving back. In this case, the word development is an oxymoron.
Shame.
Melody Wales is a Squamish resident and a long-time writer and columnist.
