Cloverdale Blueberry Cannons Are Firing

I heard the first blueberry cannons today. At 7:30am. I was already awake so they didn't bother me but it was clearly the same field, must have gone off 10 or 12 times in one minute. Sounded like the farmer was testing the propane cannon and getting it ready. They're only allowed to fire once every 5 minutes so if he's testing it you'd think he could have waited until later in the day. The people who live on the subdivision on the west side of 168th Street above Highway 10 are going to be livid! And a few minutes later I heard the cannons go off 3 more times in rapid succession. Then nothing. Until 8:30pm when I heard a cannon go off several times. I doubt the bylaw has changed in Surrey. Blueberry cannons are supposed be turned off by 8pm.

The blueberry cannons don't bother me. I've been hearing them since 1974 or 1975 when the blueberry fields were around Colebrook Road and 152 Street. Now there are many farms along 168th and 176th and even on Highway 10 where the Maddix Farm used to be, approximately the whole area between the salmon processing plant and 168th Street.

I'd been wondering when they were going to start up again. My blueberries are starting to ripen. I have several varieties so I'll get blueberries on one plant or another until September. I only have a dozen bushes in a raised garden bed and I protect them with nets. No blueberry chomping birds are going to get my berries!

Now's the time we get to be entertained with letters to the local papers complaining of the blueberry cannon noise. One Cloverdale resident had filed a lawsuit against the city of Surrey for not enforcing the bylaws. I'm not sure how that's turned out. Probably not heard yet by a judge. Its pretty hard for bylaws officers to enforce the complaints anyway. If they hear them then they have to track down the right field and the right farmer responsible for the infraction and give them a warning. Sometimes the farmers forget to turn the cannons off at night and I hear them between noon and 3pm when they're supposed to be shut off so clearly farmers do violate the city's bylaws.

I'm amazed at how many blueberry fields have sprung up around Cloverdale in the past 5 years. Incredible boon but it probably drives the price down for the farmers when the supply exceeds the demand. Oh well. I still buy local blueberries and freeze them. The blueberries from my little garden get eaten before I can get them into the house! Love blueberries. Made a pie last week from some I still have leftover in the freezer from last year. I've got to get busy and use them up to make room for this year's berries bound for the freezer.

Yummy!

Man Suing City of Surrey over Blueberry Cannons

There is an article in the Cloverdale Reporter about a Cloverdale resident suing the City of Surrey over failure to conrol the noise from the propane cannons in the blueberry fields, namely the ones in the vicinity of Highway 10 and 168th Street.



Click here for the full article.



This fellow has been one of the more vocal opponents of the noise from the blueberry cannons and he is suing Surrey over their inaction to enforce their own bylaws. I can see how he has a point. Those cannons aren't supposed to be firing between noon and 3pm and I hear them pretty much every day during this time period.



On the other hand the city bylaw officers have to be reasonable people. They can go out to a farm once they've received a complaint and maybe someone will be home maybe not. Though I would think during berry picking season there would be people around. The bylaws officers remind the farm owner of the city's noise bylaws but they want to be nice about it and just inform them of the violation and ask them to comply in the future. That's all it takes. They don't need to be nasty and hand out fines. So whether the bylaw officers are following up on complaints I don't know. I'm sure they keep a log book of their calls and incident reports that they'll have to produce in court.



The thing is I've been hearing those propane cannons in the blueberry fields since 1974. That was when I lived up on the hill on 182 Street. The cannons I heard were on 168th Street and 160th Street and Colebrook Road areas so they can be heard some distance away. I'd say I was living in Cloverdale before blueberry farming even started in the area and before propane cannons came into use and you don't hear me complaining about it even though I was here first. Its just a fact of life when you live in a farming community. Farmers got to do what they got to do to protect their crops. If some farmers think buying or renting propane cannons to scare away the birds works for them then more power to them.



I'm in the camp that believes the birds get used to the noise after awhile and stick around munching on blueberries. That's been my observation since the mid-70's. The best devices to deter birds are nets or predatory birds like hawks. However nets are costly to put up and the nets make it nearly impossible for a farmer to use a blueberry picker machine.



The article says the man suing the city lives in the area of 168th Street and Highway 10. Most of the houses in that area are new. And when I say new I mean built after 1975 long after the propane cannons in the blueberry fields had been established. Certainly some of the houses in this area, the small acreages on Highway 10 and a few houses up 168th Street and some of the offshoot streets have been there since before I was born but the majority of the houses in this area were built after the blueberry fields had been established in Cloverdale. The Cowtown development between 168th Street and 172 Street, roughly between 58th and 60th Avenues was built in the late 70's. The houses west of 168th Street are still being built in those new subdivisions.



It seems unreasonable that anyone who has purchased a house in this area of Cloverdale since after 1970 didn't look around and see there were farms south of Highway 10 in the 168th Street vicinity and figure out that with farms might come unpleasant odors or noise.



Location, location people.

The Blueberry Cannons are Warming Up

I heard the first blueberry cannon of the season yesterday. It was one huge bang. I heard quieter bangs a few more times yesterday and figured one of the local farmers must be putting their cannons out in their blueberry fields and testing them.

I heard the cannons again this morning. The only reason I paid attention was because there were several bangs within seconds of each other which is a violation of Surrey bylaws. I think they're allowed one bang every 5 minutes. But if they're setting them up and testing them I guess that's a different story. What are the farmers going to do? Stand around all day positioning their propane cannons and testing one every 5 minutes. I haven't heard those cannons again but I do hear some off in the distance.

Its probably just about time for those hungry birds to flock to the blueberry bushes. I have a dozen blueberry plants in my yard with decent sized berries on them and some are starting to turn blue. I pulled one off to try yesterday and it was sour. Needs a couple more days of sun which doesn't seem to be in the forecast for the next 5 days.

So how do I protect my blueberries from bands of marauding birds? Simple. I cover them with nets.

Some blueberry farmers do that too because of the impact to neighbors. I know Save On Foods was advertising last year that they only sell blueberries from farms that do not use propane cannons.

I say farmers have to do what they have to do. Nets over acres of blueberries is not a good option for many. It is expensive to set up and if the farm uses a mechanical blueberry picker it can be a pain taking the netting down so the machine can go down the rows. However some farmers have said these nets pay for themselves rather quickly.

I'ts my opinion, and this dates back to the mid-70's growing up in Cloverdale when the cannons first started firing, that the cannons don't work. The birds get used to the noise and stay in the field chowing down on blueberries.

Somewhere out there are some very good blueberry cannon salesmen.

Blueberry farmer retaliation?

Today while listening to the intermittent bangs of the propane cannons in the nearby blueberry fields, something stuck out. One cannon is making a huge blast that is a good two to three times louder than the regular propane cannons. That one made me sit up and take notice.

Like any other noise that goes with the territory after awhile I didn't notice it anymore.

I'm wondering if the blueberry farmers are getting fed up with the protestors and have located an extra loud propane cannon and are using it in retaliation.

Yup, this new cannon is a good blaster all right. Whether or not it scares the birds is debatable. Whether or not it will bug the crap out of the complaining neighbors is a foregone conclusion.

The Blueberry Wars

Kerry phoned me on his way home on Wednesday night and said on the radio traffic there was a protest happening in Cloverdale at Highway 10 and 168th Street. I said it probably had something to do with the blueberries and the propane cannons. Although we live nearby I wasn't piqued enough to go check it out and get stuck in a traffic jam.

In yesterday's Surrey Leader there was a photo and short story. Yes, it had to do with the cannons in the blueberry fields.

A couple of the farmers farm blueberries on the south west corner of the intersection showed up and a shouting match ensued. They've been farming blueberries there for nearly 20 years and using propane cannons the whole time. They blame the recent homeowners who build or buy half a million to million dollar homes in the area and don't do their homework about farms in the area and then complain about it later.

If people are building or buying in the fall and winter months the cannons are silent. Its kind of like people buying a house in Richmond or somewhere else near a flight path and then complaining of the noise.

Growing up around here we had worse to dal with than propane cannons. There was the mushroom farms. Now man that was some stench in the evenings when they were gassing off. Same problem. More people move into the area, complain about the smell, and eventually they shut down either for good or move elsewhere. And who could forget the pig farms? Depending on which way the wind was blowing that aroma would blanket Cloverdale.

Am I the only person in Cloverdale who has invested in earplugs and wears them?

Blueberries and the cannons

When I was growing up in Cloverdale most of the farms around here produced corn, lettuce, potatoes, and other vegetables. Blueberries came on the scene in the early to mid seventies. And with them came the battle cries of the propane cannons that the farmers believed would scare away the birds intent on eating the profits. But after awhile the birds got used to the noise. Fake propane cannons weren't going to stop a hungry flock of birds from chowing down on fresh blueberries. During the summer the Surrey Leader published letters from Cloverdale residents annoyed at the noise. Particularly annoyed at the farmers who left their cannons running all night long. I remember those nights!

The city has noise bylaws but enforcing them is not an easy task. Many times the farmers who've set up the propane cannons leased the fields and did not live on site. Catching the farmers at night to turn off their cannons was pretty much impossible.

As the years progressed some blueberry farmers found other ways to protect their crops. The most effective, and expensive, way to protect their blueberry crops from hungry birds is setting up netting over the fields. Also effective and less expensive and quieter than the cannons is setting up brightly colored tin foil to flap in the breeze. Add in a few fake hawks on a kite string. And in some cases, live hawks who are trained to stay in one area.

But some farmers still use the old propane cannons. We hear them going off starting around 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. Oh, well. Story of my life during the summertime in Cloverdale.

And as is typical for this time of the year the Surrey Leader is publishing letters and stories of residents around Cloverdale who are complaining of the noise. Interestingly the complaints are coming from residents who live in the vicinity of 32nd Avenue west of 168th Street and up through the Morgan Heights and Rosemary Heights areas. In other words, fairly recently built subdivisions, some built within the past 3 years.

Its the old problem of developing some of the farm land and the people who move into these new neighborhoods. The farmers were there first. These propane cannons have been firing for 30 years, long before Morgan Heights was even a figment of someone's imagination.

Has the City of Surrey allowed too much residential development too close to established blueberry farms? They say no. But look around Cloverdale. Many of the old established farms from when I was a kid are long gone, replaced with condos, business centres, and houses on postage stamp sized lots.