Langley residents say no more propane cannons

Protesters were outside the Langley Chamber of Commerce today to call on the premier to ban the use of propane cannons.

The controversial noisemakers are used to scare birds away from crops, particularly blueberries.

Blueberry farming is one of the most profitable industries in the Fraser Valley, but as the area becomes more and more built up, more people are moving on to hobby farms with about an acre of land.

But those residents say the propane cannons are waking them up and disturbing them.

Propane cannons go off at about 140 to 146 decibels to scare away the birds from the blueberries – that level is the equivalent of standing about 100 feet away from a jumbo jet that’s taking off.

The cannons start going off early in the morning and go until about 8 p.m.

“They start about 6:30 in the morning, then they run till noon, then there’s supposed to be a three-hour break from noon to three as per the guidelines, then they go again until eight o’clock at night,” said Kevin Mitchell, Langley Township resident. “It happens basically from the beginning of July, late June, until mid-October.”

But farmers say these residents have taken on a very small issue and made it into a much bigger deal.

“I think they’ve taken this on as a total vendetta against blueberry growers, period,” said Mike Makara from the BC Blueberry Council.