Protecting natural habitat is essential

We are saddened by the ongoing loss of biodiversity and natural habitat.

Fawn lilies, Garry oak, snowberry and hazelnut are disappearing. Local species of butterflies, frogs, snakes, slugs and insects are also being lost. Songbirds and raptors are particularly sensitive to habitat loss and they are disappearing at a rapid rate.

The incredible richness of life is what makes this land so amazing and beautiful. It is irreplaceable. The lower Island has seen huge habitat loss due to clearcutting and terraforming (blasting land flat and using blast rock to fill and create terraces), big-box stores with acres of paved parking, housing packed onto lots with tiny green spaces and road expansion that never catches up with the unplanned growth.

For example, the Trans-Canada Highway between Goldstream Park and Helmcken Road used to be a forested, green corridor until Langford took control of the land from the Provincial Capital Commission. In View Royal, the approaches to Thetis Lake are no longer forested.

Global warming is a sad reality and the type and rate of development favoured by developers and allowed by municipalities is not helping our planet. Untouched forest areas are some of the best carbon sinks; their importance in moderating our local climate is not well understood.

Imagine the Costco parking lot on a hot summer day and the difference to the cool, deep forest at Goldstream Park.

Protection of natural, native habitat is essential so all of us can survive.

Ron Rayner and Eleanor McKinnon Langford