(The following story by Tricia Leslie appeared on the Peace Arch News website on September 5.)
WHITE ROCK, B.C. — Tree trimming on White Rock’s Hump has been put on hold.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway had planned to start “vegetation control” Monday, but BNSF director of public affairs Gus Melonas said Friday the work will not go ahead as scheduled.
“We’ve determined we will not progress with the tree cutting as planned, Monday through Wednesday,” Melonas said. “We are in discussions with the mayor’s office and other city departments as well, to determine the next step in this matter.”
Melonas said a White Rock resident’s request had sparked plans to trim trees and remove shrubs.
“Initially, the request came from an individual who wanted to remove some of the vegetation. That’s where this originated,” Melonas said.
Three Peninsula residents sounded the alarm last week over the planned work.
A BNSF advertisement was posted in the Peace Arch News last Sunday to let residents know the company would be trimming trees and clearing shrubs on a portion of the Hump east of the pier.
The ad states, “no whole trees and plants will be removed, to preserve slope stability.”
But it’s not just the tree trimming that had Don Pitcairn, Dave Chesney and White Rock Coun. James Coleridge demanding BNSF halt the work; they questioned the reason behind the vegetation control.
“A private citizen made a request to BNSF to improve his view and cut the trees,” Coleridge said Friday morning, prior to BNSF’s decision not to go ahead as planned.
BNSF manager of media relations Jim Rogers told the Peace Arch News Friday afternoon that, in general, if the railway is doing vegetation control, it would be “to prevent any sort of debris from hitting the tracks.”
Coleridge had also questioned how far the city’s right-of-way extends into the BNSF-owned property. He said the railway had arranged, through the city, a right-of-way access in order to bring trucks in.
“These trees are going to be trimmed, topped or cut, over my dead body,” Coleridge said, giving credit to Chesney and Pitcairn for alerting him to the issue.
“Dave, Don and myself are trying to stop it from happening. The three of us are ready to go to war. The trees on the Hump are under attack, and we have to defend them.”
Pitcairn questioned potential environmental effects.
“It sets a very dangerous precedent,” he said. “Once you start chopping trees for the interests of a private developer, where does it stop?”
Pitcairn, a longtime opponent of trains on the Semiahmoo waterfront, pointed to a potential for increased risk of mudslides if trees are topped or pruned. He warned that train accidents in B.C. have released caustic soda and chlorine gas into the environment.
“They should be more concerned with the safety of their trains,” Pitcairn said.
Chesney said the way he learned of the scheduled trimming is most concerning.
“When rumours started that a realtor was telling buyers, ‘Don’t worry, those trees are coming down and money has gone to the city for it,’ I started asking questions,” Chesney said.
“Then it was duck-and-cover and run for the hills.”
Coleridge said he hopes BNSF will permanently put a stop to the work.
“BNSF has had a good relationship with the city. I would hope they are more interested in their relationship with the community than with one private citizen.”