Goulds road will destroy apple orchard, moose habitat, resident says
A woman in the Goulds neighbourhood of St. John's is trying to rally support to stop a highway from being built through a piece of land near her home.
"Some people don't realize how important nature and wildlife is, and I need somebody on my side to help me fight this," said resident Kerry Singleterry.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is planning to extend the Robert E. Howlett Memorial Highway, also known as the Goulds bypass road, by more than nine kilometres.
Some residents in the area only found out about the plans when they saw surveying work going on in the wooded areas close to their houses.
While most of the residents are concerned about how it will affect their water or if it will cut through their actual property, Singleterry is more concerned about the environmental impact.
She also says the road can be accommodated with an adjustment.
"Just move over a couple hundred feet," she told CBC's St. John's Morning Show.
A unique natural area
Singleterry said because the site used to be a dump site 70 years ago, a unique ecosystem has grown up on the land.
"When people threw out their garbage, they threw out apple cores, and apple trees are after growing up — a wild apple orchard," she said.
"The moose and other animals in the area take advantage of this food source, and they spend a good many days of the fall over there just pigging out."
In recent meetings with members of the government, she tried to bring up the issue of the moose and apple trees, but to no avail.
She also thinks putting the road through an area so heavily populated by moose will cause a safety risk to drivers as well.
Now she wants people from the public to come forward and help her out in her cause. She said she doesn't want to stop the road extension completely, just to change the plans enough not to disturb the moose and other animals near her home.
"I have three species of owl that live on that marsh …I just want them to change the direction a little bit," she said.
