We had always thought how nice it would be to look out our back windows onto the forest beyond. Our house, however, is located on the opposite side of the street to where the entrance to Bilberry Creek Ravine forest is located. We can, to be sure, view the forest looking out from the front of the house, beyond the houses across the street. And now, it seems, ours is the preferential location, though we've always thought otherwise.

When we bought our house, all the houses on the street had already been built and occupied for several years. The builder had reserved one lot and years later, built an 'experimental' model based on a purportedly Florida, open-concept interior design. And this is the house that we bought and have lived in for the past twenty-six years. Its close proximity to the forested ravine has been a delight to us, extending the quality of our daily lives enormously. The drives we used to take to have access to such natural spaces were no longer necessary; our access was immediate and very much appreciated.

But this spring's phenomenon of a long, cold and very wet season has wrought havoc in the ravine, and most particularly so on the hill located directly beyond the street we live on, where houses are perched on what always appeared to us, flat and lengthy properties before transiting to the ravine itself. It had never occurred to us that those houses might be endangered by slides; we had in fact never experienced anything of the calibre of these mud slides previously.

But the slides kept occurring, one after another, taking much of the hillsides with them, complete with forest trees, and depositing them over the creek below. And it seems, after all, that there is a threat to a few houses on the street, backing on the ravine. Municipal crews were out in those three identified backyards performing some kind of remedial tasks, though what they could possibly be against this force of nature, is beyond my guess.

There is no reason for us and others who regularly walk the trails in the ravine, to hesitate about continuing to go out to do just that. Most of the ravine is intact and will remain so. It's just that particular steep grade which was affected -- and some other areas as well, distant from us. Crews have installed a sturdy 'snow fence' around iron stakes to prohibit entry to the area that no mischief-maker will be able to dislodge. 
                          

What else can occur, and how any kind of work to restore stability to the area will eventuate is anyone's guess. We do feel badly for the people involved, to live with such insecurity, when suddenly the ground beneath you becomes unstable and threatens your property. The city should never have given license to the property developers to build so close to the ravine, with the knowledge that Leda clay is so prone to dissolving when saturated. So they are now inheriting a mess that could have been avoided. The liability is theirs, after all. The heartache is the home owners'.