Landowners in Central Saanich are fighting the municipality to be able to cut down protected trees on their property so they can expand farming.
The 16.1-acre plot was bought by the McHattie family in 1937 and has been used for farming ever since, most recently for cultivating barley.In 2020, the owners started clearing trees on their land that is outside the reserve, preparing for an expansion of grain and forage crops, according to the B.C. Supreme Court judgment.
The district told the owners to “cease all work on the non-ALR [portion of the lot] until further notice.” “The tree replacement order of the district in this case, which requires the planting of more than 700 trees, exemplifies the significant restrictive impact the tree protection bylaw can have on the permitted agricultural activity on the non-ALR portion of [the property]. As the land owners noted, one cannot farm in a forest,” Jackson wrote.
Land WOKES (it’s a farm)
Municipality over reach. Imo
Central Saanich council are the worst !!! Well done to the farmers who are in their right to farm their land !!!!
It's their land full stop. You wanna look at trees, you shoulda bought some. It's bad enough when the municipality gets involved in your own yard, let alone telling farmers not to farm.
Nothing like the old whiny boomers who write to complain about everything. What a nightmare.