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LETTER: EDPA should be based on science

There certainly is a need for science underlying any EDPA-like environmental law, as Saanich Coun. Karen Harper points out in your Nov. 10 issue.
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There certainly is a need for science underlying any EDPA-like environmental law, as Saanich Coun. Karen Harper points out in your Nov. 10 issue.

The EDPA law was based on a lie – claiming that certain species only live here, when they are common to the south. Eco-activists achieve that con job by defining species on political boundaries instead of the essentials of real entities.

Missing is inclusion of human values. Eco-activists segregate us from the rest of nature, and fail to recognize that people take care of their land. Colin Plant is still in the camp of a negative view of humans despite my attempt to educate him.

Along the way we saw callous dumping of the burden of proper analysis on individual property owners who might have to quickly sell their nest-egg to pay for care, bureaucratic administration and the hypocrisy of blocking new use of land while trying to force preservation of early farming activity. (Garry oak meadows were created and maintained by tribal people to increase production of foods they valued, such as camas lilly.)

And drama queen Nathalie Chambers stated that areas contained in the EDPA are essential for agriculture and food security – but agriculture is covered by the ALR – and claimed that the only sensitive ecosystems left in Saanich were on private land, whereas knowledgeable people point to some in parks, which were exempt from the EDPA law. And she ignored the many plantings that humans nurture – which gives much more biodiversity.

Saanich’s EDPA bylaw is an example of the competence and ethics of environmental activists – they can’t get basic facts right, they mislead people and they are against humans.

I urge voters to develop and help elect candidates for Saanich council who will respect humans instead of artificially segregating us from the rest of nature.

Keith Sketchley

Saanich