Re: Allotment garden decimated by deer, Your View, Oak Bay News, Aug. 27
Thank you to Rick Lee for his thoughtful letter to the editor.
It’s important to consider the human cost to the deer invasion in Oak Bay. As Mr. Lee pointed out, gardening “is a healthy, quiet and productive community activity which needs to be encouraged to keep our community attractive and enjoyable.”
I would also add that it’s a creative activity, a source of food, and fodder for honeybees, whose numbers are severely threatened.
The cost of building huge fences is prohibitive, and is ruining the aesthetic of our community.
More importantly, however, it is shutting us off from our neighbours. This is a significant, but not easily measured, consequence of prioritizing animals over people.
How did we get to this place where one species is randomly protected over others?
The native plant garden had to be enclosed to protect the native plants from the deer.
Will all the native plants be allowed to thrive only on the corner of Margate and Beach Drive?
A vocal, (and I suspect) minority has made deer protection in an urban environment their priority, with no thought about the consequences to other species, or to the humans choosing to live in a city.
This is another call to our leaders to deal with this problem in a thoughtful manner.
Terry Vatrt
Oak Bay