Here's an interesting question for discussion.
Due to extreme weather events, NB has recently been losing about one covered bridge per year, mostly as a result of flood damage. I believe there are only about 25-30 covered bridges left in the province.
It won't be long before these iconic structures, so tightly associated with the culture and character of the province will disappear forever.
Should the province be doing anything about this or should we just let "nature take it's course".
Personally, I would be in favour of replacing every existing covered bridge that is at end of life with a
new replacement covered bridge. In other words, I would like to see our current stock of covered bridges retained. I would even be in favour of building a few new covered bridges in particularly scenic areas or along designated tourist routes (where feasible). Obviously new covered bridges can't be built on heavily travelled roadways with truck traffic, but surely there are a few river crossings that can be added to our current inventory.
When Parks Canada accidentally blew up the Point Wolfe covered bridge in Fundy National Park about 15 years ago, they chose to replace it with a new covered bridge. Why can't the province do this elsewhere????