Dear Sir:
I am very concerned about the flowering crab apple trees along Lakelse Avenue that are totally denuded of leaves and covered with web worm.
It looks bad aesthetically to have numerous trees looking absolutely terrible on our main street! These ghostly looking trees also reflect negatively on Terrace as a community and on the businesses and offices in the downtown core. It is also serious to be incubating these worms that will in turn spread to other fruit trees.
As an orchardist who is growing trees commercially I find the inaction of the city irresponsible and unnecessary.
Terrace has the unique distinction of being able to grow a wide range of as apples, pears, cherries and plums. Terrace is the furthest north in North America that this range of fruit trees can be grown.
As a city we should safe guard this heritage and give it the value and protection it deserves.
I would like to see the City of Terrace have a viable plan to control these regularly occurring pests or to simply take the trees down and replace them with something easier to manage.
While it would be possible to spray every 7-10 days with BTK, an organic product, to manage these pests, I realize that this would be an expensive option.
My advice would be to take these flowering craps down and replace them.
If the city does take these trees down, I highly advise burning them to stop these web worms from multiplying.
Also, if the city does burn these trees, please let us know where the fire is, for a number of us with fruit trees would like to show up with hot dogs and marshmallows to celebrate.
Charles Claus,
Terrace, B.C.