The plan is a point of perspective

COMMENTARY on the Corinella Foreshore Landscape Plan (Sentinel Times, 23/1) was all from a human perspective. People’s wants, needs, rights, priorities and opinions were aired but there was no mention of the thousands of other life forms, seen and unseen – birds, animals, insects, microbes, plants – both above and below ground. A foreshore is a complex, rich, diverse ecosystem, where everything is important to the whole, even when compromised by human intervention.

The language used is revealing. Words such as ‘jungle’, ‘tidying’, and ‘mess’ suggest a particular perspective.

Your editorial headline mentions ‘… (unmanaged) vegetation.’ A Corinella Foreshore Committee has existed for many years, working with the responsible government department of the time. It is hard to believe that the foreshore was not managed to the department’s standards during these years.

Trees are important allies in dealing with climate change. This doesn’t mean a tree should never be removed, for safety and other reasons but, one of the recommendations in the plan is that ‘All trees should be removed from bio islands … and only low-growing shrubs and ground cover to remain’.

This ‘balanced’ plan has not resolved the divisive debate between views, vegetation and values. Can we change perspective? There doesn’t need to be conflict between the environment and amenity.

We don’t have to choose ‘either /or’ but seek ways to have both. We must try.

Anne Heath Mennell, Tenby Point