Algoma Powers Vegetation Maintenance on Llewellyn Beach

What follows is very similar to a letter I sent to the president of Algoma Power. Because of difficulties in transmission, I am re-doing it here:

Dear Mr. Clark:

I am an owner of a summer cottage on Llewellyn Beach on St. Joseph Island. I am writing now to show you the results of the devastation of our trees this summer as a result of Algoma Powers decision to widen the cleared area around its lines and poles to 15 feet on each side (4.5 meters). (This was a policy many of us were not aware of until we arrived.) While it is impossible to undo our damage, including the loss of magnificent trees as old as two hundred years, my hope is that when you see what has happened, your company will decide not to inflict such damage upon other cottage areas served by Algoma Power. I also have questions for you set forth at the end of this letter about the policy and how and why it was adopted.

First, I would like to introduce you to our community, an association of approximately 40 cottages in the woods at the end of the B Line Road. Our families have been coming to our peaceful and quiet summer home for a long time, many for more than 100 years.

Below is a photo of one of our bays, with cottages nestled along the shore. They are reached by small shady dirt roads. The power line runs just behind most of the cottages, and beyond that lie approximately 200 acres of forest owned by our cottage association. As you may be able to see, the cottages are quite close together.

Our community was founded by Episcopal bishops and our ch! apel, wh ich holds services every Sunday during the summer months, remains the heart of our community.

This is our shady in road, leading to our cottages:

As a result of the tree-clearing, our other, previously shady, roads have become wide thoroughfares:

while a wide gash now extends just the rear of other cottages:

In some areas, the width of the cleared area exceeds 30 feet.

Cottages that were previously shielded from the eyes of passers-by on t! he in ro ad, and from their neighboring fellow cottagers, have suddenly been exposed as trees large and small came down.

Many of the trees felled were huge and ancient:

One cottager said that she begged not to lose her towering pines, which she estimated to be 200 years old.

We counted the rings and we think she is right.

Also as a result of the destruction of the trees, tiny getaways in the woods have lost their privacy:

Out on the B Line Road, the situation is somewhat different. Some hidden driveways are now in full view among large and small stumps. But other lots suffered relatively minor trimming, and trees still stand well within 15 feet of the power line. What could account for this differing treatment? Some of our neighbors along the B Line have said that those property owners agreed to be responsible for keeping the lines clear on their property. If this is the case, why were Llewellyn Beach property owners not offered this option, so that their magnificent trees might have been spared?

I also have questions about how and why the decision was made to change the policy at all. What new circumstances necessitated the change? We are at the end of the power line and, if a tree were to fall, the outage would be quite localized. Summer cottagers are not life-dependent upon electricity and, in fact, we are used to occasional outages (including this summer, when the power went out unexpectedly one evening for abo! ut two h ours, despite the fact that our own trees had been cut down). Nonetheless, Algoma Power subjected us to 10 (in some cases, more) days of scheduled outages, the noise of constant chainsaws and chippers, and the loss of our canopy, presumably at great cost for what? So that we might not experience occasional power losses? This simply does not make sense. To add insult to injury, in the dying days of summer, we find that people scavenging our wood have now been enticed onto our private property, where homes are mostly empty.

Finally, I would like to ask for a copy of the standards for cutting that are applicable to areas such as our cottages, as well as those applicable to more urban settings. I assume that Algoma Power would not cut 15 feet on either side of the power lines in nearby Richards Landing because if it did, there would hardly be trees left. Given the density of cottages along waterfront areas such as ours, it might well make more sense to apply the same standard for towns and urban locales, rather than the one that resulted in such senseless destruction.

Thank you very much for taking the time to hear my concerns. I look forward to your response.

Very truly yours,

Kathryn Pauli

428 Llewellyn Beach Road

Richards Landing, ON P0R1J0

kpauli@mac.com