Niagara Councillors Speak Out Against Province’s Bid To Reduce Protection Boundaries For Fonthill Kame

By Doug Draper

Well, here is one for the Fonthill Kame – one of the most distinctive and environmental rich resources of land in our greater Niagara region.

One of the many cold water streams running down from the Fonthill Kame and making up the headwaters of the Twelve Mile Creek flowing into Lake Ontario.

A combination of Dave Augustyn, the mayor for Pelham, Ontario and his council, and, this April 6, Niagara’s regional government’s ‘Integrated Community Planning Committee voted a resounding “no” to a baffling attempt by the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources to reduce or fragment boundaries for protecting ecological integrity of a Fonthill Kame-Delta that has been designated as “provincially significant.”
In a regional report to the natural resources ministry,  approved by the committee this April 6, the region’s planning commissioner Patrick Robson notes that “the Fonthill Kame-Delta is one of the most distinctive and prominent landform features in Niagara. … It reaches an elevation of 75 metres above the surrounding plan, the highest point in Niagara Region, The Fonthill Kame-Delta is responsible for the special character and much of the attractiveness of the Fonthill area. It is the headwaters for Twelve Mile Creek, Niagara’s only cold water stream supporting a mature brook trout population (and) has created microclimatic conditions … suitable for tender fruit production.”

A rolling orchard of apple trees waiting for their spring blossoms at the foot of the Fonthill Kame. Photos by Doug Draper

“It is an extremely important feature in Fonthill and the Niagara region,” said Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn (check spelling) of the kame. “There seems to be very little rationale to support doing what (Ontario’s natural resources ministry) is doing.”

Robson told regional councillors that some of the area the ministry wants removed an “Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) it had a hand in approving to protect the kame years ago happens to be where the aggregate industry is interested in expanding sand-mining operations. Robson added that he has found no other reason based on science for why the ministry now wants to change the boundaries of the ANSI.

“For the life of me, I am having a hard time understanding the (ministry’s) rational for this,” Robson said. If anything, added the report he prepared for the regional committee, the boundaries of the ANSI should be expanded.

John Bacher, a veteran member of the Niagara-based Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society, spoke to the committee in favour of protecting the kame and keeping the ANSI intact. No one from the natural resources ministry appeared before the committee. Niagara At Large will be watching for the ministry’s response to Robson’s report.

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