The board of RDOS has recently voted to refrain from injunctive action in regard to the destruction of the riparian exclusion area on Sickle Point (This, after voting, unanimously, to seek injunction two years ago.). The consequences of the present vote should have been as predictable as if Penticton council had voted to refrain from the enforcement of parking bylaws. A gravel road has since been constructed across the most sensitive north-eastern tip of The Point to connect to a beached log which appears to have morphed into a dock. This road has now veered to the south and appears poised to run along the narrow sand spit which gives Sickle Point its name. The destruction of prolific songbird habitat is nearly complete.
Sickle Point is (was) a precious example of a “dry” marsh which was once probably typical habitat along the shores of the Okanagan lakes, but which largely disappeared during the environmental dark ages of the past century. The community of Kaleden fought to preserve The Point from development during the ‘90s and possibly earlier. Now at the dawn of what will, of absolute necessity, universally become the century of the environment we are about to lose it through a series of RDOS blunders. This dark comedy will be complete if (when) RDOS approves a five-lot subdivision of The Point. This would (will) amount to environmental vandalism on a scale not seen in the Okanagan for many years. We are going to witness a “paved paradise” extending deep into the vital guts of Skaha Lake.
Neal Burnett
Kaleden