Yeah, Cut the Bastards Down! Trees? Who Needs Trees?

I consider myself a pretty big environmentalist. I've been recycling for a long, long time. A couple decades now, easy. I try to be conscious of packaging choices for things, and try to watch my waste. I never, ever throw out recyclable stuff.

When it comes to nature and the trees, I'm pretty keen there. I've given my nephew the "A single ingested plastic bag can kill a baleen whale so don't throw that shit on the ground" speech. I certainly am passionate about the reduction of logging in British Columbia, livid about how forestry happens in this province, for the most part.

So it's very, very surprising to me that, deep down inside, I'm kinda happy they're cutting down the 70 trees at Queen Elizabeth Park that obscure the breathtaking view of the cities and mountains. How horrible am I?

Truth is, though, that having lived here all my life, I know that there is, hands down, no better place in the city to watch the sunset. (Second place is Spanish Banks, Jericho, but only for 6 months of the year, because then the sun sets further to the south, so again: QE Park, hands-down.)

Or, it was, until the trees started obscuring it.

And it's been 20 years since I've seen a great sunset there. That's how long the trees have been blocking it. And it sucks, you know, to cut down trees anyplace, especially in a place like that park, but my hope is they take down the giant evergreens and replace them with smaller trees that will never soar and block the scenery.

So, yes, a nasty controversy, and, yes, a lousy way to solve the problem, but what else do you do, right? Sure, let them keep on growing, have no view, but then what's the cash cow of QE Park going to do? It's one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and THE best view of it available from within the city, and the only vantage point has been mostly grown over for more than a decade, but obscured for two decades now?

Life's tough. Especially when you're an ill-placed tree.

To the people who originally planted the trees in the park: Fuck, were YOU dumb. Good job. See what you made us do? Fuck, man. If only you thought before you acted!

(That's called passing the buck, or as we Catholics like to think of it, guilt-management. I feel better already!)