ACTION ALERT

  I hope that all of you will find the time  to help the  residents of Aldergrove who fighting to save this neighbourhood forest.
Please spread the word about this

Public hearings will be held at the Monday evening council this January 20 regarding the Township's development proposal for the former sewage treatment site between Bertrand Creek and the Abbotsford border. The address is 27540 28th Avenue. The site is now used as a water treatment site and is also the location of the Aldergrove weather station..Township has deemed most of the property to be surplus and has applied through an agent for the land to be subdivided into sixty-one single-family  lots. The southern portion of the development would mean cutting down a large part of the forest on the property. Local residents have organized a petition asking Council to scrap the twenty lots that would impact on the forest. We need people to come out to the hearings to show their support for the local neighbourhood. Aldergrove and Langley at large should not be loosing any of our rare urban forests. Although setbacks from the ecologically sensitive Bertrand Creek have been provided for under the plan building near the Creek should be approached with caution. I hope you will attend the hearings. This will be the last chance for the public to weigh in on this issue.  As in days past please wear green to show your support for the cause. Just so there is no confusion this is not about the Glen Valley forests which were for sale by Township and have since been spared.

If you are unable to attend in person please consider signing the electronic petition at
http://www.change.org/petitions/township-of-langley-protect-the-forested-southerly-portion-of-lot-27540-28th-avenue-aldergrove-bc

or more importantly writing a letter to the Township.
If you are unsure about what you could write or how to word what you’d like to express, e-mail ecological-footprint@outlook.com with subject heading: Request Letter, and you’ll receive an e-mail with a letter you
can sign and forward to legservicesinfo@tol.ca.)

You can find contact information for Mayor and Councillors here. 

Langley Township Council will be meeting at 7pm in the Fraser River Presentation Theatre Civic Facility, located at the 4th Floor, 20338 – 65 Avenue, Langley

Wear Green to show your support for keeping this forest intact.
This is not the only forest that is could be threatened by Township's decisions this year so stay tuned for further news.

WHILE THIS BLOGSPOT WAS SLEEPING

This blog has been silent for many months now. This was not intended and I hope to rectify that by catching people up in this post.Over the course of the Autumn of 2013 a long year and a half campaign to save the Mclellan forests in Glen Valley  wound to a close.What has once seemed impossible became reality. However there seemed less urgency to report good news than there had been to report the bad news. I think I felt compelled to write something profound that would sum up the the inspirational conclusion to so many months of hard work by so many people. Details that I wanted to nail down gave me excuses for neglecting my blogging duties.  November came and went. The holidays passed. Life interfered. My bad habit of procrastination reasserted itself. As a result many people may have missed some important facts or heard about them only by happenstance. Here is my attempt to rectify that.

In September 2013 Trinity Western University announced that thanks to the generosity of a local family it was purchasing the Mclellan Forest East. On September 24 a Dedication Ceremony was held to the memory of the late Thomas Blaauw.

Then in late October the Mayor announced that Mclellan Forest West or just Mclellan Park had been designated a Natural Park by Township Council. The ongoing concern that this parcel was not adequately protected had been unexpectedly resolved. The petition campaign that we had been conducting since the Spring in an low key manner came to an unexpected ending.

I will have more to say about what has been going on with TWU and the forest that they are now custodians. . A place with too many names already has a new name. Mclellan Park needs an official name from the Township. WOLF is looking forward to working with TWU and TOL with regard to the lands they have assumed responsibility for. 

Watchers of Langley Forests intends to continue as a going concern. We will continue to speak up for the conservation of forests throughout Langley. I hope to have an announcement shortly about our first Annual General Meeting. Mclellan Park Blogspot is now a misnomer but until further notice it and the facebook page will continue to be the place to find information about WOLF and our activities. I hope this will not be confusing for people.

Because in fact there are issues  that WOLF is involved with right now. But see the next post.

If anybody has questions or would like to get involved with WOLF please write to savemclellanpark@gmail.com.

Kirk Robertson
Chair
Watchers of Langley Forests