Bad apples. Idiocy is not a problem of access, but of education. I don’t see anyone being locked out of Beacon Hill Park because of a few drug needles.
Broad solutions to specific problems are rarely a good idea. It’s all empty words we’re teaching our children to respect and appreciate the environment while at the same time closing access to it.
Contrary to the statement that there are plenty of places to recreate, there are not many accessibly areas to recreate in the wilderness on the lower Island, and increasingly fewer as development increases the population.
Just as a healthy carrot is not one that is groomed to perfection on a machine and wrapped in plastic, neither is healthy nature a park enclosed by fences with a convenient parking lot and plastic playground.
The prejudice against people who recreate in the wilderness, whether hunting, 4x4’ing, snowmobiling, or what have you, is significant in our increasingly urban society, and not one that reflects the acceptance that we profess to have for a wide variety of people with different values, especially in beautiful B.C.
There are “idiots” in all walks of life who cause problems and don’t clean up after themselves, let us not allow them to define how the rest of us live our lives.
Julien Michaud
Brentwood Bay