Editor:
Penny Allport is partly right about the wildlife being in their natural habitat (Coast Reporter letters, Feb. 12). The reason deer, cougars, coyotes, etc. are in backyards, golf courses turf farms and nurseries is because they need food to exist. The food is in the places I have mentioned above - these places used to be their habitat until we decided to build houses, golf courses and farms.
When we used to clear-cut the forest and burn the slashes, the grasses, fireweed and other forbs grew in large numbers. This created food for the wildlife, and they increased in number.
This was fine until the environmental people got involved. They lobbied to stop slash burning, decreasing the growth of the animals' food. The planting of trees immediately after logging also removed more habitat for the animals. Forest fires were a natural occurrence. New fire fighting methods also removed natural habitat. This also helped the pine beetle to get out of control due to human interference.
So here we are: the animals have moved into urban areas because of the abundance of food in gardens and lawns. Now we are clear-cutting for our houses and shopping centres, and taking away more of their habitat. The bottom line is as long as humans keep interfering with the animals habitat we will see more animals killed in the manner that Allport brought up.
You can transplant animals on the peninsula until hell freezes over, but because of the lack of food where you transplant them to, they will be back in one or two days.
So start slash burning, and plant forbs on power lines instead of broom and blackberries. Get involved with the wildlife organizations that try to create habitat and lobby government agencies to help solve the problem.
Bill Ellis
Sechelt
