Conservation Council of New Brunswick
Fredericton Chapter
For Immediate Release
April 29, 2009
Fredericton – The Fredericton Chapter of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick is joining those concerned with the way that Fredericton City Council handled the approvals needed to build a Costco in the UNB Woodlot.
“We are concerned with the lack of transparency and the piecemeal process involved in approving the Costco and other developments in the UNB Woodlot,” stated Tracy Glynn, the Conservation Council’s Acadian Forest Campaigner and Fredericton Chapter member.
At Monday’s City Council meeting, it was announced that the City Council would only be voting on expanding the parking lot area for Costco. The gas bar had already been discussed and approved during a closed committee meeting earlier.
“We only take small comfort with the decision of City Council to move the gas bar outside the buffer zone. During our ecological crisis, we should not be considering Costco’s profits ahead of our own needs and the planet’s needs. The city does not need more gas bars and big box stores but it does need forest and wetlands. Lessons should be learned from cities across Canada that are now footing huge bills to restore natural areas and wetlands because of past unwise development,” stated Glynn.
“The UNB Woodlot is home to herons, frogs, blue bead lilies, old-growth red spruce stands, mature forest and wetlands,” stated Megan de Graaf, the Conservation Council’s Forest and Watersheds Project Coordinator and Fredericton Chapter member. “The expansion of big box stores and housing developments into forest and wetlands deprives wildlife of their habitat and threatens our city’s biodiversity. Today, the primary threat to forest and wetlands that remain near Canada’s cities is urban sprawl. We encourage the city of Fredericton to join other cities such as Edmonton in taking measures to halt biodiversity loss.”
The Fredericton Chapter of the Conservation Council reaffirms its calls for a moratorium on development in the UNB Woodlot until a proper public participation process has been done.
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Tracy Glynn, 458-8747, forest@conservationcouncil.ca
Megan de Graaf, 458-8747, water@conservationcouncil.ca
