A group of Burnaby residents is trying to get their city to stop developing near a sensitive habitat that houses a colony of great blue herons — a legally protected species in B.C. and Canada — just across from City Hall.
A childcare centre is now being developed nearby, and some aren’t happy that multiple decades-old trees were cut down to make space for it, saying that it would have been a nesting space for the herons.
Heymann Yip, a spokesperson for Save Burnaby Parks and Green Spaces, has been working to raise awareness for months in an attempt to stop the development.
“What was here was basically, as an example … a 100-year-old Western Red Cedar,” said Yip
“And as you can see, it’s cut basically down to a stump. Well, there were seventeen of these magnificent trees that were also cut down on the property.”
An online petition looking to clip the project’s wings — and protect the birds — has gathered almost 12,000 signatures.
“We felt the trees should not have been cut down, because it acted as a protective barrier against eagles, ravens, and crows for the heron colony,” Yip said.
“So that’s what our group was fighting about earlier, and now we’re trying to protect the colony altogether.”
Herons rear their young in the area from April to August. Back in 2013, the colony was 139-nests strong, according to information from the City of Burnaby.
The City didn’t make a spokesperson available for an interview about the childcare development, but in an email, public affairs officer Cole Wagner said, in part, “Site clearing, a disruptive activity, was done well in advance of nesting season. There are no nesting sites on this property and as such, no nesting trees were affected.”
But Yip and other residents say Burnaby is working around safe development guidelines set out by the province in 2014 to protect blue herons. One of those guidelines was to have a recommended 200-metre ‘no-disturbance’ buffer zone for new colonies.
“We really want to get this message out to the public, so they can react by sending emails, calls — to the mayor of Burnaby, and the city councillors — to let them know to choose a different location,” Yip said.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 Pacific blue herons left in the country.