It's when matters stand out in stark relief that we really value what we have, when we think of them as being under threat, removed from our ability to enjoy them that we appreciate them most and take desperate action to preserve them. Now that, after a year of procrastination the municipality's public works department has decided to finally proceed with replacing the bridges in Bilberry ravine, their dismantling began with a vengeance we hardly anticipated. In that, rather than removing each bridge and then reconstructing it in a reasonable one-by-one process, the bright minds heading the engineering project decided for some obscure reason to dismantle them all simultaneously.

Two were swiftly demolished, and the prospect of access to the trails we daily use in our recreational treks to the ravine being closed off for the three-month period the municipality estimated it would take to complete the job was painful to contemplate. And that prospect, of being shut out of our valued daily routine of exposure to the natural world around us at our virtual doorsteps brought dread to the minds of all of the trail regulars who think of the ravine as their escape from the technical world that has captured us all.

On the verge of taking apart the third bridge in the series of four destined to be rebuilt, we discussed the issue directly with the crew working on the bridges. Their foreman declared without any prompting from us how idiotic he felt it was to remove all of the bridges at one fell swoop. He had himself assumed they would be tackled sequentially, and had informed everyone who questioned the procedure that this would be the case. Only to be informed unequivocally by the chief engineer that this did not at all reflect his plan, which was simultaneous removal, and that was that, he shrugged.

I wrote to the mayor of the city, to our city hall councillor, and the reply from our councillor was almost immediate, dropping into my email box at midnight of the late afternoon I'd written. He was passing my message on to the public works department chief engineer, and from him the message I soon received was too bad, so sad. I've no particular illusions that it was my protest alone that may have turned the tide. Many other people have informed us over the past year that they've made enquiries and expressed their frustration over the 'no access' barriers placed over the bridges, which everyone simply ignored and clambered over, for bridge-and-trail access. An earlier email a year ago I'd sent to the municipality had gone unanswered.

The following day, however, as we ventured into the ravine anticipating that the main bridge we used in a sequence of three, allowing us access to the network of trails would have been dismantled, we discovered no one at work, and the bridge, although preparatory work had been done, still stood. The following day, the same. But then someone from the engineering department happened to be walking about, scrutinizing the work done to date, and he informed us that plans had changed. The two bridges that had been removed would be replaced before the next two were to be dismantled. And the reason we saw no one at work, he said, was that the new replacement structures were being worked on, off site.

And since then, in the hopes that this would be the final disposition, we've come across so many more of the frequent ravine trail users than we've seen in quite a long time, that it's evident how much the access through the bridges to the trails means to people in the community who take advantage of the priceless jewel in our midst. Some of the trails have been diverted somewhat by fallen trees resulting from the last powerful thunderstorm, and haven't yet been removed, necessitating brief bypasses. Some of the trails have had large, rough, sharp pieces of heavy gravel dumped over them to broaden access for the large tracked vehicles involved in the operation, making walking on them somewhat difficult. A new trail had to be hacked out of the woods to replace an older one that had slowly slumped into the creekbed.

So the circuit, of necessity, is more challenging, takes longer, and introduces us to new possibilities. But we've got access and this is what is of such tremendous value to all of us, and for which we're exceedingly grateful.