To whom it may concern: I am…

To whom it may concern: I am a local lifelong farmer. Bellemere Winds went to municipal council in Keene Ont and asked that the property be designated as Open Space - in order to protect the forest they said. ( It was a 40 acre forest I would say and is now already cut back to less than 20 acres of forest). They gave a whole presentation on how their corporation works hard to protect nature and natural habitat to the point where they showed a video about a trailer at another resort of theirs which they had moved with a crane solely to protect the natural habitat of the land, they said. When applying for that phase of development on the property they knew about the Butternut trees and expressed that they were excited to be able to work around the Butternut trees and preserve them - no problem - they love trees they said. A mature Butternut trees produces butternuts and also saplings. Bellemere Winds is planning to kill the mature trees and replace them with seedlings that may mature and produce seed in the future but may not be as resistant to the canker as the trees they will kill so may never mature at all The trees that are producing seed now should not be sacrificed because they are in the right environment to grow well and survive the Butternut canker disease, and reproduce. Not all the proposed seedlings they are proposing as a replacement for the killing of the trees would survive, especially in a different area. Butternut saplings are particularly difficult to have thrive...they have specific needs as you likely know.

[Original Comment ID: 215694]