Re McIntyre Creek Development:
I have spent countless hours wandering the woods around McIntyre Pond.
I’ve watched an immature bald eagle perched in a spruce tree chuck cones onto the ice below, seemingly for pleasure and entertainment only. At the same time, ravens made swooping passes by the eagle trying to nip him by the tail. I’ve watched male squirrels chasing each other while a female sat on a tree limb, cleaning her face and fluffing her tail, waiting for the victor.
I’ve watched foxes hunt mice, crossed paths with packs of coyotes, and relished the variety of bird song. I’ve enjoyed the mallards and swans dabbling for food while mergansers fish the swift creek.
I’ve watched otters playing in the ponds and beavers collect twigs for winter. It’s a beautiful forest, which I and countless others enjoy.
It saddens me to live in a city where such beauty is not appreciated. Instead of eagles and coyotes, squirrels and ducks, we would choose to burn it down, pave it over and build characterless houses.
Soon the sounds of the forest will be gone and the joy of the woods will be lost.
Instead of listening to the songs of birds, I’ll be whistling Malvina Reynolds, that tune which always comes to mind whenever I have walked through Whitehorse’s new subdivisions: “Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes made of ticky tacky, little boxes on the hillside and they all look just the sameÉ”.
Anna Tupakka
Whitehorse