Editor’s note: This is a copy of the letter sent this week to Jeff Saby, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure as Area Manager for the North and East of Thompson District.
To: Jeff Saby, BC MOTI
As per our conversation on Monday, Mar. 5, 2018, I wanted to follow up with an email and some pictures to illustrate a little better why we in the Barriere/Louis Creek area are so disgusted with the ‘butcher’ job being done to the trees along our road ways. As I pointed out to you, they are butchering up trees and leaving a large mess behind them while doing so.
You expressed to me that this ‘mess’ will rot and be gone by Spring, but I really find it hard to believe that it will be gone before fire season begins. Rather, it will be dried out enough by then and will be adding to the fuel load for the upcoming season. Not only that, but it takes a very long time for Evergreen trees to rot. Even the debris lying in the ditch will remain ‘green’ for quite some time.
Not only that, when my husband and I came upon this group, they had their blade 12 to 15 feet DOWN Cedar Gultch mutilating a bush for no reason. Not like a bush down there impedes anyone’s vision up on the road.
The company you hired is not doing a decent job of any kind but rather ripping, tearing and stripping branches off some trees and shrubs and severing the tops off small trees. You also claimed that these poor trees being severed would once again bloom come Spring. I would highly doubt that due to the way they have been mutilated.
One other thing I find funny about this whole ordeal is that you indicated to me that you had run out of money for this project. We first saw them on Agate Bay Road around Feb. 22, and then lo and behold, they arrived back here yesterday, sometime after our phone call I am guessing.
I fully understand that you have a budget that you have to try and follow and that you were only allotted so much money for this project, but that does not mean you have to hire a company that does not do quality work.
I guess it is okay for those that do not live here or travel these roads, but this is our home. We travel these roads on a regular basis and we do not want to, nor should we have to, look at this mess each and every time.
I will be taking a drive out to Barriere today, so I will be taking more pictures along the way and will forward them to you later on this afternoon. I will also be doing a follow up on this come Spring when you claim this debris will all be rotten (and no longer a fire hazard) and these mutilated tress will once again be blooming and beautiful.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to a response on this matter.
Lindell Smith
Louis Creek, B.C.
