RESTORE COOTES

Counters track bird populations TheSpec.com - Local - Counters track bird populations John Burman , The Hamilton Spectator , (Dec 24, 2008) Hamilton bird watchers will cover a little less ground during the annual Christmas Bird Count Dec. 26. The birders, participating in the local count for the Hamilton Naturalists Club (HNC), walked 198 kilometres last year to tally 64,054 birds. But Tom Thomas, the HNC's count co-ordinator, says the counters may cover less distance this year. "Urban sprawl" -- subdivision and road construction within the designated 24-kilometre radius for the count centred on Dundurn Castle -- has steadily reduced grasslands, fields and habitat. "The owlers (those who count owls) have a tough time hearing the birds because of traffic," Thom...

[a prudent policy of closing roads that are redundant or not needed (like the example of Valley Inn Road ), combined with "road diets" to narrow overbuilt existing roads (like Main and King) and shrinking parking lot footprints would save the city money while enhancing liveability, i.e. more money for recreation, more car-free natural areas. The use of salt combined with other car-produced run off (oils, grease, anti-freeze, gasoline, brake fluid, etc.) should also be considered as an environmental cost, especially when it directly impacts water quality and habitat in and around Cootes Paradise. Efforts to improve water quality would benefit from less roads and larger wetlands, for example] - r Hamilton plowing among province's priciest TheSpec.com - Local - Hamilton plowing among province's priciest Blame high level of service and highways ...

Here the warning sign to keep people from accessing Ancaster creek as it reaches McMaster University just south of Spencer Creek and Cootes Paradise: WARNING: Combined storm sanitary sewer outfall. This water may be contaminated. Do not play in this immediate area. KEEP AWAY. CITY OF HAMILTON While we are blessed with these lovely creeks, we cannot fully access them for our enjoyment, and indeed, we regularly pollute the waters with our waste water thus contributing to the ongoing problems blocking progress in efforts to improve water quality in Cootes. Rather than offering a connection to nature through recreation like swimming, wading, fishing, or just dipping your toes into the cool creek, the creek instead presents a threat to human health. What kind of message does that send to young people curious to explore the world around them? This past summer, my daughter and I got caught in a sudden and furious rain storm while beside Spring Creek in Dundas; taking shelter beneath a pine t...

Advisory board opposes Dundas storage facility Richard Leitner, News Staff, Dundas Star News Published on Dec 19, 2008 A Hamilton Conservation Authority advisory committee is siding with residents who are fighting a proposed storage facility they say will make the western entrance to Dundas look like the home to a “maximum-security jail.” Members of the conservation areas advisory board voted 10-0 last week to recommend that the authority’s board of directors oppose an application to rezone parkland at the corner of King Street and Olympic Drive to make way for the development. The directors next meet on Feb. 5. “To me, this is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, if this were to go ahead,” said advisory board member Dave Robinson, noting Cootes Drive already cuts through the area’s environmentally sensitive wetland, home to nationally protected Blanding’s turtles. “It’s not the first time this has happened or could happen.” Advisory board chair Jim Howlett said the development...

RBG tries to attract pair of bald eagles TheSpec.com - Local - RBG tries to attract pair of bald eagles Eric McGuinness , The Hamilton Spectator , (Dec 18, 2008) The Royal Botanical Gardens hopes to be home to the first bald eagle nest on the north shore of Lake Ontario in more than half a century. Tys Theysmeyer, acting head of conservation, says it could happen as soon as next spring. The big birds, with a wingspan of up to 2.4 metres, disappeared from southern Ontario and faced extinction across much of Canada and the United States after the pesticide DDT started causing their eggs to break in the mid-1900s. But the population is now recovering. A dozen spent last winter on Hamilton Harbour, half a dozen are back already this year and, f...

Pavement near marsh is bad thing: chair Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News Staff Published on Dec 12, 2008 Hamilton Conservation Authority staff cannot determine when fill was placed in Volunteer Marsh, next to the site of a proposed storage facility development at 201 King St. E. within the Cootes Paradise environmentally sensitive area. As a result, the authority cannot have the fill removed, and return the wetland to its originally functioning condition, said HCA watershed planner Nora Jamieson, who approved a rezoning and official plan ammendment for the corner property at King Street East and Olympic Drive to permit construction of a four-building storage facility. “We’re dealing with what’s there now. I don’t know who placed the fill there or when it was done. We deal with what’s there today,” Ms. Jamieson said. But Patricia Chow-Fraser, chair of biology at McMaster University, said degraded wetlands shouldn’t just be left alone or be covered with more fill. She supports the restor...

Ron Albertson, the Hamilton Spectator Fewer male pike in fish habitat TheSpec.com - Local - Fewer male pike in fish habitat Chemical outflow on the hook Rob Faulkner , The Hamilton Spectator (Dec 10, 2008) Cootes Paradise is famous for a habitat restoration effort that includes barring carp from this 250-hectare wetland at the west end of Hamilton Harbour. But also for...

Kaz Novak, the Hamilton Spectator On the trail of art and science TheSpec.com - Local - On the trail of art and science New York artist has RBG canvas Eric McGuinness The Hamilton Spectator (Nov 14, 2008) Restoring a well-worn nature trail partly paved with decades-old asphalt and over...

New debate over Cootes building plan TheSpec.com - Local - New debate over Cootes building plan Eric McGuinness The Hamilton Spectator DUNDAS (Nov 13, 2008) There's new debate over development on a privately owned property near Cootes Paradise that McMaster University once proposed turning into an off-campus parking lot. J. Douglas Hammond of Ancaster, former owner of the Dundas Canadian Tire store, wants to rezone two hectares on the northwest corner of King Street East and Olympic Drive to build four self-storage warehouses. McMaster gave up on its parking-lot plan five years ago in the face of stiff opposition from Friends of Cootes Paradise and ...

Cootes Paradise wins as lake regulation plan dumped TheSpec.com - Local - Cootes Paradise wins as lake regulation plan dumped Eric McGuinness , The Hamilton Spectator , (Oct 2, 2008) Cootes Paradise appears to be safe from a threatened change in Lake Ontario levels that would have left the marsh too dry in spring when fish are spawning and waterbirds nesting. Jim Hudson, executive director of the Bay Area Restoration Council, applauds the International Joint Commission (IJC) decision to abandon lake regulation Plan 2007, which came under heavy fire from local environmental organizations and hundreds of boaters as well as the governments of Ontario and New York State. They want a return to more natural conditions that generally produce a high...

Level plan a mistake, lakes commission told TheSpec.com - Local - Level plan a mistake, lakes commission told Critics say Hamilton Harbour cleanup at risk Eric McGuinness, The Hamilton Spectator JORDAN HARBOUR (Jun 10, 2008) The International Joint Commission (IJC) was told last night that its proposed new plan for regulating the level of Lake Ontario jeopardizes the cleanup of Hamilton Harbour and efforts to remove it from the list of Great Lakes pollution hot spots by 2015. John Hall, co-ordinator of the harbour Remedial Action Plan, Jim Hudson, executive director of the Bay Area Restoration Council, and Tys Theysmeyer, aquatic ecologist for the Royal Botanical Gardens (R...

Student struck by car on Cootes Drive path Parent calls on city to prevent further accidents Craig Campbell,Published on May 02, 2008 A Dundas father is calling for safety improvements between Cootes Drive and the paved trail next to it after his daughter, a 22-year-old McMaster University student, was struck by a car while walking the family dog two weeks ago. Malcolm Skingley said his daughter, Jennifer, suffered a concussion and neck injuries. She must go back to the hospital for further tests and rehabilitation. Ten days after the accident, Jennifer was still suffering headaches, her father said Tuesday. "I see a lot of people, seniors and people with children, walking on that path," Mr. Skingley said. "But there are no signs or safety barriers to keep cars off the path." He believes the city should be pressured into making safety improvements between Cootes Drive and the pave...

The American Wild Life Institute under Thomas H. Beck...chairman of President Roosevelt's committee on Wild Life Restoration: "Conservation has not been effective. What we need is restoration....conservation isn't enough." (Dundas Star, November 14, 1935)