Dear Mr Kordyban,
In response to your company’s 30 day deadline for public response on your Pest Management Plan (PMP), I personally contacted Brett Musa.
I left a message with him and he respectfully called me back the next day. He was very cordial and helpful, answering questions and making suggestions. He directed me to talk to government entities about their policies and procedures on the use of systemic herbicides by private companies, since your company, is following government guidelines.
We thank Mr. Musa’s for his suggestions but we, the people of Robson Valley, believe that the change must begin with your company, Mr. Kordyban, Carrier Lumber Ltd. You and your company and others like it, are the very reason why the government had the need to put in place policies and procedures in the first place! Policies to ‘sort of’ protect human beings and the environment. I say ‘sort of’ because of the overwhelming number of studies and information AND lawsuits about the known and unsafe use and unknown future effects of the chemical that you wish to spray on our valley.
It is not enough to redirect the public’s demands for NON destruction of the environment and human health to some other farther reaching entities. It is the company that you are in charge of, you and your company’s responsibility to find alternatives to the terribly harmful and destructive chemicals that you intend to use to grow your ‘valuable tree species’ – words used many times in your PMP. Valuable to whom I ask? To the wildlife? To the water dwelling species? To the bees? To me? To you? To your children and grandchildren? What about the valuable tree species that you are trying to rid the cut blocks of? The native deciduous trees that among numerous other benefits, cool the forests and provide a natural fire break, so important and so needed as the wildfire season is already upon us once again.
Envision how all parts of this amazing landscape are part of a bigger whole. How it all works together to support us and life on this planet. Destroying any one part of it, one part of it being a whole ecosystem that would naturally occur below and around the branches of your ‘valuable tree species,’ and how that will disrupt and destroy the perfection of that very ecosystem for not only five years, as stated in your PMP, but for years and years to come.
I don’t personally agree with farming a certain tree species or even with the brushing of all other species around them but actually spraying, killing and desiccating, annihilating not only flora and fauna but wildlife, insects, birds, water dwellers, and not to mention human beings, is NOT acceptable. It has to be taken into account the farther reaching effects that this poison will have. I’m sure you’ve heard of the ripple effect. Can you, in good conscience, continue this path, knowing full well the destruction and havoc that this choice, to spray poisons, will wreak on the very near future of this beautiful valley and ultimately the planet?
I hate to target you specifically Mr Kordyban, but I am sure that somewhere in your mind you know all of this, all of these facts, and maybe somewhere deep inside you even agree. The responsibility and the moral choice begins with you and others in positions like yours, to change, beginning first and foremost with not using glyphosate based herbicides and to make real sustainability a real part of your PMP. It is time to consider taking the “us and “them” mindset from this equation, to stop thinking of this as a fight or a battle between companies and concerned citizens and to start working together to create a new paradigm of a healthy sustainable future.
Time is running out Mr. Kordyban… Please choose wisely, we beg of you.
I’ll quote Jae Mather, Sustainability & Technology Consultant:
“We are at that pinnacle moment, we have the decision now. Do we evolve? Do we manage this situation or does it manage us? Because if we do not change our systems, if we do not alter our economic systems to start measuring value, when it comes to the ecology, the natural systems that support us, the sustainability of our environment, we will have that system pull us right back down to earth and destroy us.”
Thank you for your wise consideration on this very important matter.
Debbie Knudslien,
Valemount, BC
