This is a picture I took from a float plane earlier this year in late May on my way out of town for the Karluk River Archaeological survey. Our house and shed are the red ones next to the water in the center top - just to the right of the big blue house. I've lived in that house since 1996.
I really did not realize how much things have been changing until I looked at this aerial photograph. Basically, when I moved into the house everything on the left side of the photo was thick woods on either side of the main road. Since then houses have been added here and there and more and more trees have disappeared. In particular, all of the houses just past my house on the road closer to the bay. It used to be when I walked down the road on my way to Abercrombie Park that it was all trees. This is no longer true. And what is most noticeable with the lack of trees is the increase in the wind. In the old days the wind was only strong if it came off of the ocean to the North. But now-a-days it also is strong when out of the northwest across all the tree-less lots. The tree windbreak has been disappearing.
But it is not all bad news. I've also noticed that the spruce trees around the houses on the right side of the photo are getting tall. These were the first houses built out in this part of town, and since then the trees have come back. So perhaps it is all a natural progression? You lose the trees with development and then gain them back as the area gentrifies? Patrick
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