Editor:
I write this while sitting, as I have been doing every construction day since Thursday, under a majestic chestnut tree that is about to be destroyed.
While the City of New Westminster talks a good game to the public about increasing tree canopy area for the benefit of all, they have apparently sent a different message to their tree protection division.
The tree in question with a canopy of well over 20 metres in diameter will, we are helpfully advised, be replaced by two trees whose trunk diameters can be as small as six centimetres.
The trunk of the chestnut is over 10 times that. Apparently if we are willing to wait until after many of us are dead, these two trees together may, and I do stress may, develop an equivalent sized canopy.
In shades of Orwell's 1984, the replacement trees are immediately put under the tree protection bylaw and cannot be cut/removed unless, of course, they meet the conditions of the tree protection bylaw.
Shelley Sears, New Westminster
