Editor, The News:

As a young man, 25 years past, I used to visit Maple Ridge many times. To me, coming from Germany, it was the most beautiful place: a small rural community, beautiful hikes, rivers, mountains, lakes.

Whenever I drove over Pitt River bridge, the most amazing vista opened up, with farmlands and mountains in the distance.

What a disappointment when I came back now after 25 years. Lougheed Highway is one ugly commercial strip, like all the other North American highway strips.

The town core is nondescript and soul-less

The green fields have been paved over by sprawling subdivisions with huge, not very eco-friendly homes (no solar panels to be found anywhere).

I was especially surprised that the merchants in this town do not really have any pride in their community. There also do not seem to be any regulations or guidelines for landscaping or design to make this town a bit more attractive.

For example the a car rental lot on the highway has a huge fence with barbed wire on top around it, making it look like a concentration camp fence, and no landscaping.

Even your own chamber of commerce looks pitiful and neglected.

I traveled all over B.C. this past summer and visited many lovely communities. Even Harris Road in neighboring Pitt Meadows is quite attractive with its flowers and street design. But my hikes on the dikes were disappointing, as well: no wildlife in sight, just huge mono-culture cranberry fields and blueberry plantations without any interspacing habitat areas for wildlife.

I used to see otter and many other birds and waterfowl when I was sitting in my canoe, trout fishing. Now the sloughs are dirty, muddy -looking and full of algae.

What have you done with my beautiful Maple Ridge? There is not much reason to come back.

In Europe, we have churches and castles; in B.C. you have beautiful nature. But you do not seem to appreciate it. Please take better care of the treasures you have so that my three children can come and still experience the beauty of your God-given natural wealth.

Elmar Beckers

Marsberg, Germany