Editor:
Everyone in B.C. is on heightened awareness with extreme forest fires and the ensuing destruction that’s becoming more prevalent each year. Many Sunshine Coast residents attending the Festival of Written Arts heard the bestselling author John Vaillant speak of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind, and how we must plan for extreme fires in the future.
With every new Sunshine Coast development, it’s essential to have a Fire Smart Plan. The SCRD intends to build a hall at Connor Park, which will serve well over a hundred people from daytime to night. This park is surrounded by acres of tinder dry forests, and it’s terrifying to think that, with increased usage and late-night events, just one negligent smoker could unwittingly start an uncontainable wildfire in a time of drought.
Alarmingly, the proposed hall at Connor Park is planned for a dead-end residential road where there’s no escape route for families who live to the west of the park. In looking to the future of climate change, this may be perilous.
Should the uncertain possibility of slowly rising waters in the future, which crippled plans for a hall at Cooper’s Green, take precedence over the threat of extreme wildfires and the potential loss of life that could ensue? With the frightening images in our minds of how rapid and destructive wildfires are becoming everywhere, the SCRD must seriously consider that many people, particularly at night, would not be capable of escaping a forest fire if one were to suddenly arise in Connor Park.
It is imperative that a Fire Smart Plan be finalized for Connor Park and the surrounding well-used forest trails before plans for a hall proceed any further.
Patricia Green, Halfmoon Bay
