I am writing to express my deep concerns over the proposed location for the future BC Transit bus service yard. I have been a resident of Prince George for nearly 17 years and have spent much time exercising on the Ginter's trail system, with my dog, with my friends and with my teenage sons.
I am a frequent user and volunteer at the Ice Oval. I live in the Foothills neighbourhood and I have travelled the trails during all times of the day from dusk to past dawn and I have encountered wildlife during many of those excursions, most notably fox. The proposed location for the service yard is where I have most frequently encountered fox hunting field mice and voles. Given the frequency of those sightings in the same forested area, denning may be occurring on the forested slope of the university hill in the vicinity of the proposed bus service yard.
I cannot express strongly enough my astonishment that our city proposes paving over a forested wildlife corridor between the city and the university for the purposes of servicing buses while other existing industrial sites in this city sit idle.
Where is our future planning for recreational trails that serve a variety of citizens, such as the elderly lady I met recently? She told us that this is the trail she walks her dog at since her mobility issues prevent her from accessing trails elsewhere. I assure you that she is not the only Prince George city resident with mobility issues that finds the paved trails cracked with frost heave and floods at Cottonwood Island Park a serious impediment to getting daily exercise and renewal in a forested area, choosing Ginter's instead.
There is a community that relies on these wooded trails - both wildlife and human. Please think longer term than the two-year funding that evaporates when the clock strikes 2020. Please think 2200 instead. Plan for green corridors that support both healthy populations of people and wildlife. Plan for my children and the old lady I met today. We entrust you to choose better and with longer vision than this current proposal.
You can do better than that.
Susanne Williamson
Prince Georg
