Editor:
Imagine living in San Francisco; when you go to bed you hear planes go by, cars, people talking. Beep Beep, the chit-chatter of people talking is your alarm clock.
In the car going to work or to school you are normally in heavy traffic, all you hear are cars. After school you tell your parents that your teacher talked all about this place in Canada named Canmore, which is open, surrounded by forests and mountains, full of nature and animals.
You finally get to come. You are so excited, it will be the best place ever. When you get to Calgary all you see in the town are buildings, houses, streets and crowded areas. This was not what you were expecting. The only forested areas are up on the mountains.
Rewind, once you drive out of Calgary and enter Canmore …
This town has just enough houses that are spread apart, stores, and most of all wild space for animals to do their normal things. Walking between neighbourhoods, I appreciate seeing the open green space.
What I am used to is no space between houses or neighborhoods, only fences. The space is necessary since animals use it and we use it too. If you increase the amount of people, we would need an airport. Airports are very noisy.
Also, with so many people there would be more cars. Cars mean smog, traffic, noise and more roads which will cut off lots of open green space. Lots of noise and man-made things overwhelm the animals and take their homes away. The animals need much more space to roam, hunt, raise their young, and hibernate.
We don’t need to increase the amount of homes on open green spaces. I do not want you to build homes on open green spaces.
Think about the wildlife. If you were them, it would not be a peaceful home, a quiet home, and a home that was comforting.
Once you build, you might not like having a big town with an airport and so many cars, so you will take it down. You would grow trees, grasses, flowers, and other plants. This process may take many lifetimes. Canmore can still be an awesome place to visit even though you do not live there. You can ski, sled, skate, play hockey, play in the snow, bike, hike, climb, and kayak.
I am 11 years old and I live south of San Francisco. I am in Grade 5. I really enjoy coming up to Canmore to visit family and friends. I love to cross-country ski at the Nordic Centre, skate, and hike. It is nice being somewhere which does not have much traffic and being surrounded by nature instead.
Lauren Peterson-Chue
