Homeless in Vancouver: They kept the hole, not the whole pole

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      Allteck crews are busy replacing worn-out wooden utility poles all around Vancouver. It’s a case of “out with the old and in with the new” but not, it seems, when the old includes a bird or two.

      When a crew recently installed a new pole in an alley on the east side of Fir Street between 12th and 13th Avenue, they did something unusual.

      You can see they attached a length of the old pole to the top of the new pole.

      On the west side of the bit of old pole, there’s a diamond-shaped hole—the Green Guy says he’s seen birds flying in and out of it.

      It appears the Allteck crew went to the trouble to carefully preserve an actively used bird nest.

      It seems this Allteck crew wasn’t going to be responsible for one more renoviction.

      Assuming the Green Guy and I are correct—that the Allteck crew did this for the sake of birds—then this is something worth recognizing.

      Whether this crew might have been following their better judgement or company policy or provincial regulations is an interesting question, and I shall ask Allteck, but it doesn’t outweigh the simple fact of what they appear to have done.

      It seems to me that every wooden utility pole means the potential loss of naturally occurring bird habitat. By preserving an instance of unnatural bird habitat, the Allteck crew wouldn’t begin to redress that loss but at least they wouldn’t be making it any worse. 

      Stanley Q. Woodvine is a homeless resident of Vancouver who has worked in the past as an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      Good for the crew

      Jul 12, 2014 at 7:41pm

      The thought of what they've done makes me feel slightly better than the awful that I usually feel.

      Good for them!

      Allteck - if this is not company policy, make it company policy. I've never heard of you before, but I like you now.

      So cheap public relations coup...

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