Letters to the Editor for the week of July 26th, 2012

Working together to put the 'gold' back into the river

click to enlarge

In response to one of last week's Letters to the Editor entitled "River of Broken Dreams" (Pique July 19, 2012), we would like to remind the writer that the river does belong to someone.

It belongs to the otters, beavers, ducks and diverse species of marsh and river plants, to name a few.

We, too, live here and were disappointed and saddened this week to see the river so full of beer cans, plastic bags, and deserted blow-up boats. We watched as irresponsible drunk boaters broke branches to haul themselves out of the water after having flipped and let escape yellow paddles and rubber shoes.

The garbage is an issue. Most of us who use the river regularly enjoy the natural beauty and tranquility.

On the portage trail two canoes full of booze blocked our way as their owners had decided to stop for cigarettes and munchies. The peacefulness disappeared at the railway bridge where we bore witness to a dozen young men heckling from the railroad tracks using profanities we cannot obviously put to print. Minutes later we were asked to flash our titties by an overzealous skipper who was rafted up to 15 other bright orange boats in the marsh, recently christened Beer Bay, a habitat for nesting birds and small fish.

Both of us work with the youth of this town and have a sense of humour, but we don't know about the next unsuspecting gals floating by.

We think the police know perfectly well who and what they are protecting.

If each of us uses common sense, there's no doubt we can all continue to enjoy the wonders of the River of Golden Dreams.

However, until frequenters of our lovely winding river learn to respect the flora and fauna by keeping it clean, reduce their drinking to a minimum and be sensitive to their loud use of foul language, we say let the tickets flow!

Shelley Ledingham and Laura Nedelak

Whistler

River of Broken Dreams Part II

The other day I was walking my dog at Meadow Park and noticed a group of extremely intoxicated people walking away from the river, and the pile of rubbish they were leaving on the ground consisting of empty beer cans and deflated orange plastic boats.

I asked one of the ones who seemed semi-coherent who he thought was going to clean up their mess to which he replied with a barrage of slurred verbal threats of bodily harm if I didn't STFU.

I quickly decided to just walk away rather than receive a beat down by a gang of meathead kangaroos. The sad part of this was that it happened in broad daylight, in front of children playing at the park.

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