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Third-generation farmer Rod Swenson is concerned about the destruction of prime farmland in South Delta and says he hopes that B.C.’s NDP government saves the best of what’s left — more than 250 hectares of the Brunswick Point lands — before they, too, are lost forever.

“Delta is just getting hacked and torn apart by everything — roads, industry and the First Nations treaty,” Swenson said from his potato farm on River Road near Ladner.

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He explained that four families farm much of the Brunswick Point lands — north of Deltaport and the coal port at Roberts Bank, at the mouth of Canoe Pass — through provincial Crown leases that expire this year.

Swenson is urging that the lands be officially designated for dual use — agriculture and wildlife habitat, especially migratory birds, including snow geese being squeezed out of habitat.

Without that guarantee, he fears the lands could go to the Tsawwassen First Nation, which has first right of refusal, and be developed for industry — as has already occurred extensively on TFN lands, for shopping malls, housing and port-related developments.