At least I don't think I have a bee in my bonnet.
DOUG PRICE
Castlecliff
Essential bees
I was interested to read Rachel Rose's article (Chronicle, April 3) regarding the complaints from local folk about bee spots on their windows, allegedly caused by bees in Springvale.
There is a raft of information about the crucial role bees play in pollinating many of the foods we eat every day, and we take for granted that these foods will always be available to us.
One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honey bees and other pollinators.
Yet major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables.
Readers may wish to check the internet and look at photos of what our supermarket shelves, and the variety of foods available to us, would look like if our bee population collapsed. Frankly, it's frightening.
We, like many provincial New Zealanders, have chosen to live near land that is used for horticultural and agricultural purposes.
This land was cultivated long before we moved here.
It would be a bit rich for us to complain about noise from tractors, wind turbines and helicopters that are an integral part of horticulture in our area. Sure, a variety of insects poop on my windows, but as they don't carry labels I don't know exactly where they come from.
Food security is not an issue that we have had to worry about in New Zealand, but I do worry about what the future will be like for our grandchildren's generation if our bee population collapsed.
I'm prepared to clean my windows more regularly to protect both the bees and their future.
JILL PETTIS
South Wairarapa
Stopbanks
In Reference to R Prosser (letters, March 28), who brought up an attack on me from a local resident, I made it clear I would not respond to anyone who did not have any knowledge about modern-day flood protection, and that position still stands.
Residents of our city have a time frame to get their thoughts regarding stopbanks to Horizons Regional Council (check out their website before the April 13 deadline).
Do we waste more money in protecting flood plains or do we set up a 20-year managed retreat plan to lift or remove houses out of flood plains?
Global climate change is a fact of life. Sticking your head in the ground or hiding behind a dirt stopbank is not going to work. Water levels are increasing each year.
Now we have rivers that are running twice the level they did 20 years ago on an annual basis. Our river is no different.
Central and local government need to step up to the plate to move or lift houses and properties from flood plains. They issued building permits in the first place to build there. Would central or local authorities allow you to build on unstable land or a fault line? Hardly, so why issue building permits so your house can be beside a stream that becomes a raging torrent when it floods.
I seem to remember a couple, featured in the Chronicle, who recently built next to the Matarawa Stream on Anzac Parade, knowing the stream flooded.
They were comfortable about that choice, they said. I wonder how they feel now?
I know a couple of regional councillors were appalled that they got a permit from the district council to build there. That happened when Mowhanau Beach and Hipango Tce were having red and black lines drawn over their land by the WDC for land faults.(Abridged)
BOB WALKER
St John's Hill
