Tree Fest 2017

Well the location has been moved this year, BC Housing has been exerting its new powers over the site, and this years Treefest has been located on the far edge of the property in a very wet, noisy site.


Treefest 2017 will be held on Sunday, September 10th from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm at the Riverview Hospital Grounds located at 2601 Lougheed Highway. Bring the entire family to this free annual celebration of trees.

Activities include: hourly guided tree tours, history bus tours, antique radio museum tours, a heritage building walking tour, community displays, live music, food truck, and a Blackberry Tea.

The festival site is located on the Riverview Hospital Grounds at 2601 Lougheed Highway at the baseball diamond at Pine Terrace and Holly Drive.  Access the site via the Colony Farm Road entrance off of Lougheed Highway.  There is free on-site parking.

For more information, visit the
     Riverview Horticultural Centre Society Treefest page.

Treefest is presented by the Riverview Horticultural Centre Society ( RHCS ) and supported by the BC Housing, Burke Mountain Naturalists ( BMN ), City of Coquitlam, Kwikwetlem First Nations( KFN ), and Maple Creek Streamkeepers( MCS ).

Media Contact:  Carole Edwards
Tel: 604-461-3864
Email: cedwards6@gmail.com

A poster for this event  is available for download here

So where is it you say?, click on this Google Earth file, to find out ( must have Google Earth installed )

 Location of Treefest is shown in red

September news and Treefest

The report from the second RenewingRiverview planning exercise open house is now available; get it HERE ( PDF)

The second open house was named the:  Creating goals open house
Lots of reading there too, read the background information

Well TREEFEST is just about here  Saturday September 13, 11am - 4pm

 after a lot of run-around from the bureaucrats; no you cannot have it there, or there, or there, they relented after pressure was applied, and guess what? the usual site at the HEY building was okayed. The HEY building will NOT be opened though.  And Charles Chan AKA "Charlie Chan" insists that we leave the site in better condition than when we started, which we always did anyway. More information can also be acquired from the City of Coquitlam's webpage about Treefest

       Have a look at the Treefest 2014 poster (in Google doc viewer),
                   or view it as a PDF  or a smaller version PDF


      Apparently the Hillside building is being repainted inside, and the outside shrubbery, and plantings have been removed, ( some of which I myself donated and planted, along with many others ), the Brookside building is also being cleaned up apparently, something to do with the huge overflow of the multiple issue patients at the Willingdon facility.
Not that long ago the folks from Willingdon were using Leeside and Brookside, but the contract run out, and they decamped back to Willingdon. Unknown when the photo op with the bureaucrats will be stating how they are increasing health care beds for people with issues.  But still good news to see the buildings being used for what they were designed for in the near future.  Sadly the taxpayer as usual foots the bill for all of this; the building were being used, then emptied of everything, then later refurnished and used for patient care again; then the cycle repeats itself, classic government waste.

      And a distressed person drove into the Centre Lawn building at high speed, and  both the driver and the building live on.  See a short video clip  ( YouTube )

As Riverview is now closed the care previously done at Riverview, is now non-existant or severely lacking, and has fallen onto Vancouver's shoulders.  "Crisis' of dealing with the mentally ill continues unabated for Vancouver police

Re-open Riverview?

I thought that silly season had ended, how wrong I am. We can house all the senators and failed politicians with room to spare. At least we would know where the senators are really living.
Mayors calling for re-opening of Riverview Hospital
video clip: Re-open Riverview

Article about the probable cause of all this alarm; Tri-City News:  Cities target gaps in care for mentally ill
Maple Ridge News:  Maple Ridge council calls for Riverview Hospital to reopen

       Opposition:  Warehousing mentally ill is cruel

Globe and Mail:  District urges reopening of Riverview Hospital mental-health facility

Global News:   Idea of re-opening Riverview Hospital gains traction
     Some nice comments with this article, and one un-informed comment so far.

Tri-City News:   Coquitlam lauds support for re-opening Riverview
Letter to the Editor:  Yes, reopen Riverview Hospital to help the mentally ill

Vancouver Sun:  B.C. pushed to improve mental health services, reinstate Riverview Hospital. 
                   Mayors, police call for provincial support for intervention centres for mentally ill, addicts

NEWS 1130:        Riverview Hospital was best for some patients: former nurse.
                      Maple Ridge Council wants to see the facility re-opened.  [ Some nice comments ]

 Topnews (NZ): Better Mental Health Care Services Needed
 Austrian Tribune:  Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital should be reopened for Mental Health Patients

It appears that the story is gaining more legs than the average centipede...
The site was continually by previous generation dedicated to public health, lets keep it that way; get some life back into this beautiful property.

The venerable CBC radio had as a segment  on August 27;
  Call for Riverview to re-open, Life-long learning.
          Download the Podcast  [ mp3 file: runs 00:45:51 ]
Interviews with people  about re-opening Riverview, some retired staff, doctors, and head nurse Anna Tremere are interviewed.

 Hopefully if the powers that be, "see the light" and re-open Riverview, and the decent bus service will resume again.
BUS ROUTE HAS CHANGED   Low ridership blamed for bus route changes

TREEFEST

Tree 1380, looks like a cherry tree to me, Prunus sp.

Prunus serrulata “Kwanzan”. Oriental Cherry in fact.

Treefest is in September

City of Coquitlam's webpage about Treefest, and other environmental events.

Download a PDF Treefest poster, for FREE !
Tri-City News:    Riverview Treefest on Sept. 14 in Coquitlam
Green Scene, column written by Elaine Golds, ( a picture from moi !)

Apparently this years Treefest is under-funded considerably from past years, and the government bureaucrats have moved the venue area from the HEY building 

                        (which is being used by the movie industry, these days apparently)

  to the area in front of the I.D. building,(Industrial Therapy, Industrial Services), which is nearer to Finnies Garden, but farther away from the rather limited access to public washrooms.

 The staff also are adamant that they will not  have a portion of the lawn cut  as promised in a past meeting for this event; Typical !  And of course the public is not allowed to cut it either, even though we do own it !

Destruction by neglect of hard-earned taxpayer dollars that went into creating the hospital; but you can bet that the bureaucrats are still being paid handsomely.     Guerrilla grass cutting anybody ?