Along the Fraser Growing food could be salvation. p6
Trustees put off calendar changes. p11
THE NEws
Business New camera spots invisible problems. p37
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, February 2, 2013 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢
Irish man not guilty of assault Family of victim reacts with anger at judgement by M o ni s ha M a r tin s staff reporter
An Irish man accused of suckerpunching another man during a drunken argument two years ago has been cleared of aggravated assault. On Thursday in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court, Judge Rory Walters found Trevor Harding “not guilty” of an assault that left Cordell Peter Dame paralyzed. In a barely audible voice, Walters accepted that Harding struck Dame in self-defence. “There are great discrepancies in the evidence of witnesses for Crown,” said Walters, noting the differences in testimony given by George Nestor, a taxi driver who came to pick up Dame and his friend Tim Toth. Walters instead believed Harding’s testimony and the evidence given by Thomas Byrne.
Colleen Flanagan/The NeWS
Pennies no more Sabrina Hartman, owner of Just Ducky toy store on 224th Street, laments the end of the penny. See story, p3.
See Verdict, p9
ARMS rattled about Hydro clearing Swath of trees felled over creek for new powerline by Phil M elnyc h u k staff reporter
The photos of clear-cut logging taken to the edge of the streams reminded Geoff Clayton of the old days, when the bulldozers moved in and did their thing, and nature had to clean up after. “They’ve just knocked it down like it was a 1920s logging show,”
he said Thursday. Clayton, president of the Alouette River Management Society, said at least two local creeks in the Alouette River area of north Maple Ridge have had the vegetation stripped from their stream banks, where the right-of-way for B.C. Hydro’s transmission twinning project crosses the banks. Stripping vegetation to the edge of a stream can lead to soil erosion or siltation of the water and remove a source of nutrients for aquatic life, Clayton said. “It is daylighting of that area of
the river.” In contrast, developers in Silver Valley, south of the powerline, have to leave 30-metre-wide setbacks along streams when building suburbs. But uphill from the houses in Silver Valley, “they’ve been clear-cutting right though the same creeks.” The practice is standard and is being done with care, said B.C. Hydro community relations manager Donna McGeachie. “It’s normal to bring right-of-way clearing to the edge of streams and rivers,” she said in an e-mail.
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Trees are felled to ensure power line reliability. And clearing hasn’t yet reached the Alouette River, she added. An area near a stream leading to the Alouette River had to have trees removed near the powerlines because of safety concerns, she said. “The arborists assessed that in order to take the trees down safely, they had to hand clear the trees and drop them over the stream. “Following the clearing, they Contributed began site cleanup, which is conTrees have fallen across streams in north tinuing.” See Clearing, p10 Maple Ridge as part of the project.
Opinion Along the Fraser As We Age Acts of Faith Gardening Community Calendar Scoreboard
Snacks that double your deliciousness intake 6 6 19 20 29 35 42
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