4 - Friday, January 31, 1992 - North Shore News An ode to GIVING CREDIT where it’s due is one of my many virtues. In fact, it rivals my modesty. So today I have a good word to say about West Vancouver municipal arborist Shirley Nicholson — or, to pull both triggers of her name, Charlton- Nicholson. Turn to your precious, leather-bound copies of The Col- lected Thoughts of T.L. 1991 and you will find that iast summer I| wrote very wrathfully of the tree-cutting program in West Vancouver conducted by B.C. Hydro, acquiesed in by Mayor Mark Sager, and cooperated with by Ms. Nicholson. I said the woodchoppers were making an esthetic and en- vironmental mess — like the one on Marine Crive at the entrance to Lighthouse Park, where butch- ered bits of trees remained for months. And many readers agreed. This may have seemed a fairly harsh judgment. But there were a lot of scars — and for what? The point of the exercise was to clear trees and overhanging bran- ches away from B.C. Hydro lines, many of which had been knocked down by trees in the heavy winter storms of 1990-'91. Yet for all the chopping, which on the North Shore cost B.C. Hydro (that is, us) $700,000, there were still outages when storms blew down trees in recent months. And it is no daring prophecy to say: there will be more. The solution is simple. And costly. The wires should be placed underground, at least in all areas threatened by tree blowdowns. 8.C. Hydro would have to de- mand destruction of all the trees along its right-of-ways which are tall enough to fall on its lines if it really was determined to end the threat, and then demand the authority to force property owners to grow only such new vegetation as would hug the ground and pose no future probiem. The result would be nothing less PINE than the denuding of much of the North Shore, io say nothing of draconian powers over what private citizens could and could not plant or allow to grow on their property. In short, B.C. Hydro’s present policy can ironically be criticized both for doing too much and do- ing far too little. Going underground with its lines is the only way ... and it costs several times as much as str- inging its unsightly lines in the air. Our tireless arborist — she was actually pointed out at roadside by Mayor Sager on a recent bus tour of the municipality by, 2h, visiting celebrities from Van- couver, as if she were a local in- stitution — is trying to get prop- erty owners to do voluntarily what they can’t be forced to do legally: clear away any line-threatening conifers and plant things of more modest proportions. Since the giant cedars, firs and so forth are more or less proud and beloved symbols of Northwest culture, I’ve heard that some citi- zens have received this suggestion with little enthusiasm. But in today’s column, J want to speak of Ms. Nicholson with warm praise. Because, somewhai to my chagrin, on Monday the winds they were a-blowing and a very large tree on an adjoining proper- ty began to shift back aad forth like a daisy in a breeze. I did not notice this, being preoccupied with saving the world from its manifold follies and anyway having more trees on my own land than I can keep track of. But a neighbor above us, Dick Vivian, noticed. He phoned to suggest that it might be wise to move our cars from the immediate area. We looked around. Then we looked closer. Yes, one cedar, a modest 50-odd reet tall, was swaying rather impressively, And every time it blew to one side or the other, its roots were lifting the soil on each side of it. Rather a scary sight. * PINE ~ PINE “LARGEST SELECTION IN VANCOUVER OF ... .. ENGLISH, GERMAN, AUSTRIAN ... ~ BUFFETHUTCHES, WARDROBES, NIGHTSTANDS, TABLES, BENCHES, PANTRIES, CHESTS, CARTS & TOOLS, PLUS MUCH MORE!” SECOND TIME AROUND ANTIQUES 4428 Main St., Vancouver {across from McDonald's Restaurant at 29th St) Call 879-2313 PINE. “PINE - PINE _ PINE... - PINE Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES We phoned town hall. My wife was put in touch with Shirley Nicholson. Within 10 minutes, just as I was leaving on a world-saving mission to my office in Vancouver, Ms. Nicholson materialized. She could have been forgiven for looking at me with a certain coolness. **Are you Mr. Editorial?’’ she asked, apparently having recognized my name and connec- ting it with the authorship of some words slightly critical of her good seif. I admitted it. Evidently she did not, openly at least, hold this against me. She was too busy handling the situa- tion, which was becoming critical. Indeed, the question wasn't whether the tree would fall. It was: would it fall (1) on our driveway (2) on the house of our neighbors, Cecil and Iris Wishart — Iris toils for the North Shore News too — or (3) on our house? The latter would seem, in some eyes, a just retribution for a man who had puolicly complained about the tree-cutting policy. Ms. Nicholson strongly sug- gested that the occupants of my house move to the lower level. Cecil Wishart sped home from his shop in Vancouver, where he splendidly restores Jaguars and other glittering and rare automobiles. tris Wishart agreed the tree might not wait for Cecil’s return. She acknowledged that it would have to go. Ms. Nicholson was already on est Van’s tireless arborist her portable phone. Very high- tech, at least to me, since I cherish the quill pen and the hand-written letter sealed with sealing wax. She called a tree service. Ap- parently the municipality has emergency arrangements for such matters. 1 left. Having put in a hard three hours of world-saving, I returned about mid-afternoon. And ex- pected to see quite a mess. The tree was gone. Neatly bucked bits lay in the Wisharts’ yard. My driveway, through which the hearty woodsmen — Timberline Tree Services, which deserves a plug — had had to move, was almost unnaturally clean, not a leaf or branch to be seem. The workers had had to move around a delicate slope covered with moss and ferns, which I'd expected to see trampled. Net a leaf was out of place. We'll miss that noble tree. But no tree could have been removed with greater sensitivity and speed. Thanks for the good work, Shirley Nicholson. Or Charlton- Nicholson. 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