Delta farmers are defending the removal of large stands of trees in East Ladner, saying it's essential for much-needed irrigation improvements.
Municipal crews have been busy over the past week cutting down several dozen trees along 72nd Street, planning to clear a wide swath adjacent to an existing ditch between Ladner Trunk Road and Churchill Street near the Boundary Bay Airport.
The goal is to eventually widen the ditch to improve conveyance capacity of fresh water to local farms. It's part of a wider range of agricultural irrigation improvements paid for by the province as compensation for the South Fraser Perimeter Road construction.
Members of the Delta Farmers' Institute and deputy engineering director Hugh Fraser made a presentation to Delta council Monday explaining the necessity of the project, saying the current ditch system in the area is insufficient to benefit from the other already completed enhancements.
"Without the improvement we can not effectively move irrigation water east and west. It gives us the volume which is needed and time is critical. It will give us a system up to what we were promised," said DFI president David Ryall.
Fraser said considerable time and effort had been spent reviewing the trees and shrubs that need to be removed and that many of the trees were in poor condition. He said the evaluation included a bird nesting assessment by an environmental biologist.
DFI vice-president Clarence DeBoer noted the 72nd Street section of the irrigation system has been a bottleneck in providing fresh irrigation water.
"We've got a first-class system starting from the Fraser River going to the 80th Street pump. From that point, moving the water southward toward the (Highway) 99 interchange, everything is done well. When it gets up on the reservoir, which is used to push the water through 72nd, we ran into this bottleneck. The system is only as good as the supply we can get on the other end," he said.
"We know the challenges that council and staff have had to deal with because there is a lot of sensitive area there and we're very grateful because this is extremely important for the farming community," DeBoer added.
Alarmed at the removal of so many trees, area resident Roger Meyer recently wrote to the Optimist lamenting the trees coming down along 72nd Street, as well as other trees in the area.
Meyer, a member of Delta Naturalists, said many of the trees provided nests for raptors and other birds.
He expressed concern that Delta didn't undertake any public consultation or provide prior notification.
The ditch project is scheduled for completion later next month.
