Lend your voice to a citizens’ campaign to save another precious piece of Niagara’s natural heritage by signing the petition below
The following petition was started by Marcie Jacklin, a resident of Fort Erie, Ontario
Posted October 29th, 2018 on Niagara At Large
A subdivision has been proposed at Waverly Beach/Erie Beach called HarbourTown Village.
Waverly Beach in Fort Erie – another precious piece of Niagara’s natural heritage that is now in the cross-hairs. Don’t let any piece of it get bulldozed away.
We object to this proposed subdivision based on the following criteria: This location is used as a connection to nature for many Fort Erie residents and has been for many decades. It has historical significance and may contain important artifacts.
It is one of the few remaining spring migratory stop-overs for birds in the Niagara region.
This site is used by Red-headed Woodpeckers, bats, pollinators and other threatened species for feeding and breeding.
To sign the petition, click on – https://www.change.org/p/ten-story-condo-going-up-in-waverly-woods .
A Brief Footnote from Doug Draper, reporter/publisher, Niagara At Large –
I signed this petition because we have to stop destroying or putting at risk what is left of the great natural areas in Niagara, Ontario.
This is not about opposing development or growth in Niagara. There is still plenty of space within Niagara’s urban boundaries for developers to build without compromising or destroying what little is left of our vital green places.
Our municipal and provincial leaders have a responsibility to see that growth occurs in harmony with nature.
This development in the Waverly Beach location should be cancelled as soon as possible at the Fort Erie town council, Niagara regional council and provincial government level, and the developers who have been proposing to build here, as well as those proposing to build in the Thundering Waters Forest in Niagara Falls should be directed to come back with proposals to build at other sites in the region that do not put at risk precious, life-supporting ecosystems like these.
NIAGARA AT LARGE encourages you to join the conversation by sharing your views on this post in the space following the Bernie Sanders quote below.
A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.
For more news and commentary from Niagara At Large – an independent, alternative voice for our greater bi-national Niagara region – become a regular visitor and subscriber to NAL at www.niagaraatlarge.com .
Niagara At Large 
Ms Jacklin mentions the area’s historic significance as well. It was the site of the bloodiest battle on Canadian soil in our history, the Siege of Fort Erie, in 1814. Sure the fort remains but more died here than Lundy’s Lane, Queenston or Chippewa. How many people, even locals, are aware of that fact? Will the monument to these brave men from both sides of the border, now nameless and whose many graves are yet to be found, be a condo? These men – human beings – sons, husbands, brothers – are very likely interred on this very spot according to historical documentation and previous finds. Do developers think they can just dig up a cemetery and plant houses? In 1987, graves were desecrated BY DEVELOPERS. How dare we repeat such a travesty all for money!! They tried to hide the bodies then and were caught in the act. It is a fact that Waverly was part of the battleground.
How many of the people who may end up living here will even be aware that they are very probably living on a mass grave? It should be designated as a National Historic Site. Would Americans allow houses on the Gettysburg battlefield? Would France allow a condo on Vimy Ridge? Where are our town’s representatives? Where are the Federal and Provincial Governments?
Anyone who has not visited the Fort Erie/Ridgeway/Crystal Beach area for a time would be appalled. Not a tree is left standing where the developers stake their greedy claims. Where do the animals go or even the “insignificant” pollinators that industries like the Niagara wine and fruit industries rely on? It’s a dreadful slippery slope. With nature being destroyed all over the peninsula with wanton disregard, where is our government….the very government that rants about protecting the environment? Where are the citizens voices. The citizens should be mad as hell. Voter turnout last week….in the 40’s. SHAME!
LikeLike
The importance of taking a stand to protect the little still intact is reinforces by the report released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) yesterday which found humans, primarily through ‘Habitat Loss’, are responsible for elimination of 60% of wildlife on this planet. (below is article from The Guardian)
Sue Corcoran
Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds
The huge loss is a tragedy in itself but also threatens the survival of civilisation, say the world’s leading scientists
Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Tue 30 Oct 2018 00.01 GMT
Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.
The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.
“We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff” said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. “If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”
“This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is,” he said. “This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life-support system.”
“We are rapidly running out of time,” said Prof Johan Rockström, a global sustainability expert at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “Only by addressing both ecosystems and climate do we stand a chance of safeguarding a stable planet for humanity’s future on Earth.”
Sign up to the Green Light email to get the planet’s most important stories
Read more
Many scientists believe the world has begun a sixth mass extinction, the first to be caused by a species – Homo sapiens. Other recent analyses have revealed that humankind has destroyed 83% of all mammals and half of plants since the dawn of civilisation and that, even if the destruction were to end now, it would take 5-7 million years for the natural world to recover.
The Living Planet Index, produced for WWF by the Zoological Society of London, uses data on 16,704 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians, representing more than 4,000 species, to track the decline of wildlife. Between 1970 and 2014, the latest data available, populations fell by an average of 60%. Four years ago, the decline was 52%. The “shocking truth”, said Barrett, is that the wildlife crash is continuing unabated.
Wildlife and the ecosystems are vital to human life, said Prof Bob Watson, one of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists and currently chair of an intergovernmental panel on biodiversity that said in March that the destruction of nature is as dangerous as climate change.
“Nature contributes to human wellbeing culturally and spiritually, as well as through the critical production of food, clean water, and energy, and through regulating the Earth’s climate, pollution, pollination and floods,” he said. “The Living Planet report clearly demonstrates that human activities are destroying nature at an unacceptable rate, threatening the wellbeing of current and future generations.”
The biggest cause of wildlife losses is the destruction of natural habitats, much of it to create farmland. Three-quarters of all land on Earth is now significantly affected by human activities. Killing for food is the next biggest cause – 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction – while the oceans are massively overfished, with more than half now being industrially fished.
Chemical pollution is also significant: half the world’s killer whale populations are now doomed to die from PCB contamination. Global trade introduces invasive species and disease, with amphibians decimated by a fungal disease thought to be spread by the pet trade.
1:00
WWF report warns annihilation of wildlife threatens civilisation – video
The worst affected region is South and Central America, which has seen an 89% drop in vertebrate populations, largely driven by the felling of vast areas of wildlife-rich forest. In the tropical savannah called cerrado, an area the size of Greater London is cleared every two months, said Barrett.
“It is a classic example of where the disappearance is the result of our own consumption, because the deforestation is being driven by ever expanding agriculture producing soy, which is being exported to countries including the UK to feed pigs and chickens,” he said. The UK itself has lost much of its wildlife, ranking 189th for biodiversity loss out of 218 nations in 2016.
The habitats suffering the greatest damage are rivers and lakes, where wildlife populations have fallen 83%, due to the enormous thirst of agriculture and the large number of dams. “Again there is this direct link between the food system and the depletion of wildlife,” said Barrett. Eating less meat is an essential part of reversing losses, he said.
Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study
Read more
The Living Planet Index has been criticised as being too broad a measure of wildlife losses and smoothing over crucial details. But all indicators, from extinction rates to intactness of ecosystems, show colossal losses. “They all tell you the same story,” said Barrett.
Conservation efforts can work, with tiger numbers having risen 20% in India in six years as habitat is protected. Giant pandas in China and otters in the UK have also been doing well.
But Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, said the fundamental issue was consumption: “We can no longer ignore the impact of current unsustainable production models and wasteful lifestyles.”
The world’s nations are working towards a crunch meeting of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity in 2020, when new commitments for the protection of nature will be made. “We need a new global deal for nature and people and we have this narrow window of less than two years to get it,” said Barrett. “This really is the last chance. We have to get it right this time.”
Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF, said: “We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it.”
LikeLike