Dear Editor,
I congratulate Mayor Lorne Fisher for his excellent letter re being forced to give up valuable land to provide for critical habitat for “species at risk”, in this instance the Salish sucker. Not only have we lost the right to clean our ditches, ditches that were made expressly for keeping our lands from flooding, but now farmers and landowners must give up acres of good land without compensation along these ditches. Up to 30 metres on each side!
Not only the farmers should be worried. Is no one remembering the dreadful flooding we had here in 1948? Conditions in early 1948 came together just right for a flood: a very large snowpack and a cold, wet spring which lasted until mid-May, followed by a sudden hot spell. It could easily happen again.
Think what a disaster that will be now, with all the housing and development on the floodplain. Will our blackberry-filled ditches allow the water to be pumped over our dikes fast enough?
Where is our common sense?
Jacqueline Perry
Agassiz