Citizens should have a say before trees are removed

By Letter to the Editor on August 9, 2018.

Come every Sunday, one can view Medicine Hat Village’s overflowing garbage bins along Thirteenth Ave. S.E. — giving credence to those who identify the inhabitants as ‘trailer trash.’ Garbage is for viewing until Tuesday.

In line with helping keep the city clean and green, management is preparing to remove long-standing trees. A year ago, tree removal was a ‘no-no’. With new management now located in Phoenix, Arizona, old growth trees are suddenly seen as a hazard. I suspect this is but the first step in a long-term plan to replace trailers with condos.

City planners are there to protect the public. Well, sometimes. Any new development requires a permit — common sense having no say here. To remove a trailer from any park requires a permit; yet to remove old growth trees, likely here long before the park, does the city (citizens of Medicine Hat) have a say?

I know of two people in Medicine Hat who want the trees out. Both plan to move before the leaves fall. To be clear, I personally prefer to trim trees rather than remove them.

If there is common sense and logic to be found adjacent to the gopher fields along Thirteenth Avenue S.E., it is likely only to be discovered while sorting out the garbage. But hey, who really cares?

Bill R. Thompson

Medicine Hat

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