Letter to the Editor: Dead trees and BC Hydro poles
I am emailing to communicate my support for hydro pole painting.
Hydro poles are not natural. They are dead trees and they did not die by natural causes. The trees were killed by humans who then erected the dead trees to carry electricity for human consumption. If the issue was whether we should paint live trees I would argue against tree painting.
Did we, as a community, decide we wanted dead trees festooned with electrical wires – with the occasional pair of shoes or human signage to relieve the tedium – decorating our streets? I hope not, but if so, I would have voted no to that – but I was never given the choice.
Now however, we have a legacy of many dead trees attached to electrical wires circling the island with dead cement as support, not to mention all the dead tree material used in building human dwellings as these encroach on the still living, but shrinking, live tree wooded areas.
I say paint and decorate the dead trees as monuments to the ‘nature’ of human folly and the legacy of wanton killing of live things. The divide between nature and human/culture is a false divide. If we are really worried about living in the natural world perhaps we should just get rid of the BC Hydro poles. In the event that this won’t happen, I look forward to having some of Gabriola’s dead trees, including the dead tree on the street in front of my home, painted by one or many of Gabriola’s fine artists.
With all due respect,
~ Gloria Filax
Hydro poles are not natural. They are dead trees and they did not die by natural causes. The trees were killed by humans who then erected the dead trees to carry electricity for human consumption. If the issue was whether we should paint live trees I would argue against tree painting.
Did we, as a community, decide we wanted dead trees festooned with electrical wires – with the occasional pair of shoes or human signage to relieve the tedium – decorating our streets? I hope not, but if so, I would have voted no to that – but I was never given the choice.
Now however, we have a legacy of many dead trees attached to electrical wires circling the island with dead cement as support, not to mention all the dead tree material used in building human dwellings as these encroach on the still living, but shrinking, live tree wooded areas.
I say paint and decorate the dead trees as monuments to the ‘nature’ of human folly and the legacy of wanton killing of live things. The divide between nature and human/culture is a false divide. If we are really worried about living in the natural world perhaps we should just get rid of the BC Hydro poles. In the event that this won’t happen, I look forward to having some of Gabriola’s dead trees, including the dead tree on the street in front of my home, painted by one or many of Gabriola’s fine artists.
With all due respect,
~ Gloria Filax
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