Kinder Morgan has finished remediation work on Burnaby Mountain following last fall’s survey work and mass protests.
The company hired a First Nations contractor to plant more than 350 trees in early December, mostly at the clearing in the woods, where the company drilled to test the soil for a new pipeline route.
The clearing, which was filled with protesters and police last November, is now full of cedar, maple, spruce and two types of fir. The company brought the trees in by helicopter to avoid trampling the area.
Kinder Morgan spokesperson Ali Hounsell said the project cost about $50,000 and took a couple of weeks. The remediation crew installed three sections of cedar boardwalk along one of the trails leading up to the site. They also erected fences, planted trees and used branches and logs to block some of the unofficial side trails leading to the bore hole site.
Last fall, Kinder Morgan cut several trees in the conservation area (the city says 13 trees, while the company says seven), which contravened the city’s parks bylaw. The National Energy Board backed Kinder Morgan’s survey work, which led to an ongoing legal battle with the city that will likely end up in the Supreme Court of Canada.
The NOW contacted Dipak Dattani from Burnaby's engineering department to see if the city was satisified with the work, but he was is meetings and wasn't available. Check this page for updates.
