Silver Lining PAGE 24
WEDNESDAY June 10, 2015 • www.langleytimes.com NEWS Ride For Doug Raises $37K
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ARTS & LIFE Wrapped In Colour
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SPORTS Golden Leap
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Cougar sighted in Otter Co-op area
Reaching New Heights
MONIQUE TAMMING A Tim es Reporter
The Otter Co-op on 248 Street and Fraser Highway was urging caution this weekend after a cougar was sighted Thursday and Friday night. “We urge all our customers and friends to stay cautious while in the Langley/Aldergrove area” says an online warning posted Saturday. The notice said the big cat was seen near the store the “past couple nights” and advised that “ ... if you are in the area and if you spot it, pick children off the ground and calmly back away. When you are a safe distance, report the sighting to the Ministry of Environment at 1-877-952-7277.” The cougar is confirmed to have killed a young cow on May 31 on a dairy farm on 18 Avenue and 216 Street. A conservation officer came out to confirm that the kill was from a cougar by the nature of the attack
to the neck. But Conservation Officer Sgt. Steve Jacobi said the heifer is the only confirmed cougar kill thus far. While it was believed the cougar killed a llama and a sheep last week, Jacobi said coyotes were actually to blame. Live traps are still in place but there has been no action there, said Jacobi. Jacobi said a cougar hasn’t been in this area of Langley in a long time, so it is prime feeding grounds. The cougar may stick around because of the amount of food sources available. “If we get a good sighting we may have to bring in blood hounds to track this cougar down,” said Jacobi. This heat wave makes the cougar’s scent disappear faster, making it harder to track. Conservation is asking that people report to them if any animals have been killed.
Metro cities target illegal fill dumping on farmland DUMPING OFTEN DONE UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS OR ON WEEKENDS JEFF NAGEL Black Press
DAN FER GUSON L an gley Tim es
It took three attempts, but a determined Kyle Kopic, 10, managed to conquer the climbing wall at Family Fun Day at the Willowbrook Shopping Centre. The wall was operated by The Edge climbing centre of North Vancouver.
Metro Vancouver cities are vowing to take co-ordinated action to stop the dumping of illegal fill on farmland, which degrades it and may contaminate it with demolition debris or invasive species like fire ants. Some cities in the region have controls on soil excavated and deposited within their boundaries, but there’s no good system to track movements of fill which cross civic boundaries. Compacted soil excavated from urban construction sites gets trucked — sometimes surreptitiously — out to agricultural areas where farmland owners are paid handsomely to accept fill loads. Politicians fear that, if left un-
checked, the practice will render vast swaths of farmland unproductive because of the temptation of short-term gain. Degraded farmland may become truck parking lots and poor soil can ultimately be an argument to allow development. “We need a unified stand,” Richmond Councillor Harold Steves told the Metro Vancouver board May 15. “Lots of land owners are quite happy to take [money] from truckers who want to get rid of the soil and do it in the dark of night or weekends.” Land owners get paid $100 to $200 per truckload, which can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars — much more than the maximum fines if caught, according to a Metro report. Continued Page 4