Dear Editor,
There is much meat in the saying: “What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” This is exactly what is happening with me every time I see those massive giant logs piled high on logging trucks and being transported through Linden along the highway to wherever.
Editor, this is the umpteenth time I have written about this, and moreso made a direct appeal to the entire community and the relevant key players and top functionaries with responsibility for the affairs of Linden/Region 10. I trust that this call will not be glossed over; that it serves to start or quicken dialogue for logs to be transported by river as they once used to be, and provided they are not concealed in containers in the way some are being transported, until a better alternative is created. This appeal is for the safety and goodness of all.
Very often watching these logs being transported sets your imagination ablaze in a most frightening way. Now this is not a question of being pessimistic, no sir! but rather very pragmatic and a genuine concern for the lives of people. Just talk with folk and hear their views; everyone shares a sense of foreboding whenever these logging trucks are on the move – and they are more regular now than ever day and night; our forest will soon vanish at the rate the trees are falling. Logs are only cut to specific lengths when they are carried in containers, otherwise they are any length, over forty feet and more, and invariably project ten feet beyond the end of the trailer if not more. They dangerously dangle and buck even as they are strapped and chained, and you sometimes imagine they could snap at any moment as they cross bridges and uneven portions of the highway, many parts which long now need resurfacing and are getting worse. Watching these trucks negotiating a turn with the logs extended across the road raises the hairs on your skin; one cannot erase the horrible thoughts that enter the mind – it just happens – and one is overwhelmed by trepidation seeing children cycling alongside them as many do going to school, although adults would often stop, get off the road and wait for them to pass. I’m speaking here of naked raw fear – a frightening heart-throbbing experience.
Attention must also be given to the fact that their fitness is often not in order, hence the reason for them breaking down along the highway. Vehicles approaching them often have no proper sense of judgement of the degree to which the logs are extended; some trucks are poorly lit at night, with no reflectors, no red lights signalling danger and at times even just one headlamp, when they ought to be lit up like a Christmas tree. On occasion you hear that they are restricted to working between certain hours, but that is not so, they work around the clock. With all that we have seen in the past, can someone tell me what we are waiting for, and why the river isn’t used until there is another alternative.
I repeat: I hope that this appeal is not treated with scant regard. And if what I began with: “What we see depends mainly on what we look for,” didn’t take hold of you, here’s another I know to be true: ‘Fear has many eyes and can see things underground.’
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
