Protecting Upton Farm – Letter to the Editor

Protecting Upton Farm
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published in The Guardian 12 Feb. 2009

Editor:

Re: Feb. 3 ‘N.S. concert promotor awaits P.E.I. plans’. We can feel secure now that Upton Farm is not going to become the site for a noisy major summer concert this year for which we are deeply grateful. In the midst of this long, cold, snowy and blustery winter, this news is like a breath of pure spring air as the news was presented in The Guardian by Gordon McIvor, vice-president of Canada Lands.

However, we are apprehensive about the direction that may be taken about the future status and use of the Upton Farm property, which we understand is to be imminently presented.

Upton Farm is one of the unique and valued treasures of this extraordinary Island, and we must take every positive step to ensure that it will always remain for the present and future generations. The need to protect its natural green space reflecting its flora and fauna and all that lives in it should be recognized for all generations. And in realizing its natural capacities, we should augment it with visually attractive landscaping designs, already initiated by the students in the planting of hundreds of bulbs in the fall of 2008 for our colourful spring enjoyment. An endless potential is inherent in enhancing the rich natural capacity of Upton Farm as well as to deeply respect our many citizens who want to preserve it.

Many of us are acutely aware of the constant struggle on the part of thousands of citizens in Ontario to preserve and conserve the Niagara Escarpment and the Oak Ridges Moraine.

We can and must do no less than to apply the same rigorous vigil to protect the Upton Farm.

Claude Bell,

Charlottetown