Citizen Activists Holding a Fund-Raising Yard Sale this coming Saturday, July 23rd – See Details Below
A Call for Help from the Community Voices of Fort Erie, a group of citizens dedicated to saving one of the most beloved wooded areas along the Lake Erie shoreline from the forces of greed
Posted July 18thy, 2022 on Niagara At Large
Inside the verdant tree canopy of Waverly Woods. file photo by Doug Draper
(A Brief Foreword from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large – If you have never been to Waverly Woods, it is a beautiful tract of green space for wildlife and for people who are drawn to it as a haven for walking and for finding peace of mind in a world where peace of mind is often hard to come by.
Yet no body of government, from the Town of Fort Erie to Niagara Region and the provincial and federal governments, have seen fit to save it from being vandalized and destroyed forever by the indiscriminate forces of urban development.
At an Ontario Land Tribunal Hearing this spring, it was abundantly clear that the only party that really cared was a group of citizens called the Community Voices of Fort Erie. This group spent an enormous amount of volunteer time and funding for a lawyer to fight the developer and its enablers at the town, and it did manage to win some significant concessions to save at least some of this wonderful place.
A resident of Waverly Woods. Are our government bodies saying no to places as rich as this in biodiversity? Can’t we save just a few of these green spaces inside our urban boundaries or do we have to pave over everything?
This battle is one more reminder that citizens across this region cannot count on politicians and government bureaucrats at any level to care for what they treasure in our communities. Saving our community reassures is up to us.
The yard sale Community Voices of Fort Erie is hosting (details available below) is one more effort to fund its costs in a David vs. Goliath fight. Please do what you can to support this dedicated group. –Doug Draper, NAL)
Helping us Save Waverly Woods
A Message from Community Voices of Niagara leader Marcie Jacklin
As most of you know, Community Voices of Fort Erie (CVFE) was able to achieve a partial victory in our quest to save the significant ecological and historical site we call Waverly Woods but is also known as Erie Beach.
Most of the woods will now be protected as well as some historic sites. For four years the Board of CVFE worked hard researching information and connecting with experts to ensure that our information was accurate. We are proud of what we have accomplished for the community.
Just a few of the very many citizens fighting against government disregard to save Waverly Woods
COVID impacted our efforts to do as much fund-raising as we would have liked. I know many of you look forward to our fantastic yard sales (next one is July 23rd) and trivia nights (next one is October 15). Our bird book was a best seller and we needed to reprint it several times
. Many of you simply gave us a donation. We are grateful for all these contributions to Saving Waverly Woods. We would like to appeal to everyone again to contribute to our legal and expert expenses. 100% of the donations we receive go towards paying the fees for our lawyer, planner and experts. You can donate here https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-waverly-woods or by sending a donation to Community Voices of Fort Erie, P.O. Box 273, Fort Erie, Ontario L2A 2S0.
Coming soon
July 23. Yard Sale, Oct 15 Trivia Night
As always if you have an comments please email cvferie@gmail.com
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.
Niagara At Large 
First off a great big Thank You to this hardworking group who are volunteering to donate their time and effort to save a remarkable place like Waverly Woods. We are supposedly living in a democracy and not a communist country. This group should not even have to be doing what they are doing if only we had decent politicians who actually listened to the majority of Niagara taxpayers who want to save places like Waverly Woods. It is so ridiculous and frustrating to think we the taxpayers take the time to vote for these people who are suppose to be working for us and instead they turn it around. Unbelievable when you give it any thought they are actually self serving bullies. Waverly Woods does not belong to them.
Was there not recently tax dollars spent on all the politicians gathering to discuss climate change? Do any of them have the brain power to realize that when you concrete over places like Waverly Woods and bring on yet more people and traffic etc. that you are contributing to climate change?
I guess too easy and not enough greed attached.
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