- Attend Niagara Public Meeting On October 15th
By John Bacher
The Ontario government is currently undertaking a review of its policies to protect wetlands. In announcing its review the province released an informative document, “Wetland Conservation in Ontario: A Discussion Paper.”
It gives a valuable description of the benefits of wetlands and how in southern Ontario, a region identified as the Mixed Wood Plains Ecozone, over 85 per cent of them have been destroyed.
The discussion paper notes that one of wetlands most remarkable abilities, is to reduce pollution by filtering sediments, absorbing nutrients “and biologically convert many chemicals into less harmful forms.” Through such “natural factories”, some $40 billion accrues to the Ontario economy every year.
The discussion paper recognizes how the “livelihoods, food security and cultural heritage” of the province’s native peoples are connected to wetlands. Among the traditional food sources that wetlands provide native communities are wild rice, cranberries, waterfowl and fish.
The Mohawk environmentalist Danny Beaton explains how, “Our old elders tell us when we were young that Mother Earth gives we as humans everything we need to survive, all we need to do is to give thanks and respect her body. Now after all these years Mother Earth has not been respected because humans have forgot the natural laws of life.”
“Now trees, water air even the sky have been polluted and raped so many times now. We need a human force or coalition of people, tribes, nations, or governments to act in the defense protection of the natural world before it is too late. “
This summer while on a sacred Water Walk around Lake Simcoe, I got a message about the importance of wetlands to the Ojibway people from Becky Big Canoe. She is an environmentalist from Georgian Island. She agrees with Beaton’s observation that, “We as adults have sacred instructions to follow from Natural Laws which is not to destroy life. We all need to put some of our energy to supporting the life force, Creation and Mother Earth.”
Big Canoe explained to me how wild rice marshes that once that blanketed Lake Simcoe were disrupted by the building of the Trent-Severn canal system. She encourages her people to actively harvest wild rice, both for nutrition and to protect natural ecosystems from degradation.
One hopeful sign in wetland restoration she has encountered is that wild rice stands are being deliberately restored through planting. She finds however, that this is being fought by recreational motor boaters. They deliberately destroy the young beds so their future growth will not put their pollution for pleasure entertainment at risk.
Since 1992 one of the most effective measures in Ontario’s land use planning system has been the Wetland Policy provisions of the Planning Act’s Provincial Policy Statement. Unlike a lot of other weak policies, this clearly states that no site alteration or development will be permitted in a provincially significant wetland.
Currently around 350,000 hectares of wetlands in the Mixed Wood Plain Ecozone are designated as provincially significant. This extensive mapping of protected wetlands has been a major success story in the protection of our threatened natural heritage.
The first OMB victories in recent years, where gravelpit applications were actually turned down, involved provincially significant wetlands. They have also helped to curb sprawl. Through a wetland re-evaluation based on the identification of previously unknown endangered species, I was able to play a role in the rescuing of a threatened wetland, the Ramsey Road Forest in Niagara Falls from development.
The very success of the Planning Act’s provisions to protect wetlands in Ontario has generated a disturbing reactionary political backlash. This was farcically witnessed in all candidates meetings in the last two election contests in the riding of Niagara Falls, whose boundaries include the Town of Fort Erie.
Candidates from all parties, (including the Greens) took an obscene vow to remove restrictions on development on currently protected wetlands within Fort Erie’s urban boundaries. It would be helpful if these candidates were to read the Discussion Paper’s findings that one of the benefits of wetlands in cities is to “reduce the urban island heat effect”.(ie. sweltering in summer)
There is a danger that a proposal in the Discussion Paper called wetland “mitigation/compensation” could be used by advocates of development in Niagara’s currently protected swamp forest wetlands. To address this threat, it is important that the government be told that such a system should not be applied to planning act applications that could impact provincially significant wetlands. This message can be given by October 30th through a number of ways.
Beaton notes that, “There is a spiritual gathering in Utah from this October 15th to 19th 2015. The Dali Lama will be present, Orval Looking Horse and indigenous delegates from 50 countries to give thanks and bring about action for life to continue-spiritual action is needed. We as humans need to align ourselves with the natural world and laws and protect Mother Earth with all the Good Minds and Good Hearted People.”
Via Website: Respond to the Environmental Bill of Rights Registry Posting EBR Registry number 01204464 on ontario.ca/ebr .
Via email. Email comments to ConservingWetlands@ontario.ca
Via Survey www.surveymonkey.com/s/Conserving_Wetlands
Attend Public Meeting Wednesday, October 15, 6:30 to 8pm, Niagara Falls, Gale Center, 4171 4th Avenue.
John Bacher is a veteran conservationist in Niagara, Ontario and longtime member of the citizen group, Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society. A past contributor of posts to Niagara At Large, his most recent book is called ‘Two Billion Trees and Counting – The Legacy of Edmund Zavitz’.
Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.
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In general, I agree with protecting provincially significant wetlands….but there are exceptions to the rule. For instance in the case of Mark Barnfield from Welland. He has a small house on Oxford Rd.In 2006 he bought the surrounding 10 acres of land and intended to start a paintball facility. At the time of his purchase, the land had been zoned industrial, originally owned by Atlas Steel. The city of Welland supported his plans, but the NPCA did not. They took him to court. The first case Barnfield won…. the NPCA appealed and won the second case and fined him heavily.
Apparently some time after 2006, Barnfield’s land was declared by the MNR provincially significant, supposedly because they found a dead turtle there and gum trees.
If you look at the land, it is surrounded by heavy industry or the new construction of the 406, plus a hydro corridor going through the center.
I do not see any marsh, and I suspect much of the land is contaminated from Atlas fallout.
This seems like conservation power gone awry. If there are turtles on the property, wouldn’t it be better to move them to a more receptive site, such as the Wainfleet Wetlands, where they could thrive. As far as the gum trees go, I bet Mr. Barnfield would be happy to state, if the NPCA would mark them, he would not cut them down.
Beyond that, what better use to preserve the land than a paintball facility???
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