LETTER

Blueberry Point’s urban forest has been sold!

 

I drove down to the end of Pine Street to discover that last week Blueberry Point had been sold.
 
The property was in the Brigham family -- descendents of Hull’s founder, Philimon Wright.

The last surviving descendent and owner was Stan Brigham - a business tycoon and golf course manager - who inherited the property from his aunt Rosa Brigham in 1988. He also inherited an adjoining waterfront property when his parents died a couple of decades ago.

 

The  forest here was the last undeveloped red and white pine in the urban Outaouais on the Ottawa River and also contains some provincially rare species such as white oak. It was a recognized  bird sanctuary and the genesis for Aylmer’s environmental movement which started in 1989.

Stan Brigham was my landlord for over 35 years and demolished my home after evicting me in 2007 (for political reasons). At the time, the City was revising its 2005 Master Plan and had rezoned a small section of his woodlot for conservation. The City later reconfigured the protected boundaries to exclude Brigham’s land.

His two waterfront properties of about four acres were recently listed for 1.5 million dollars, and have quickly sold to an unknown buyer. They make up about half of the remaining woods, as about six acres already have homes on them.

It remains that the community, especially the Friends of Wychwood, be vigilant to insure that any future development respects the municipal regulations to safeguard the remaining forest.

Ian Huggett
(Formerly of Aylmer)