Spring spring, terminating in a drain...

The beautiful spring weather is evident in the North-facing slopes of the former Coldspring Valley, now McMaster Parking. Skunk Cabbage, considered an "edge-of-wetlands plant," thrives as the cold spring waters trickle down the hillside.

Whereas formerly the spring might have fed into the now vanished Binkley's Pond or contributed to a spring creek moseying through a "wet woodland" (as marked on a historic Royal Botanical Gardens trail map), it now terminates at a drain, a rather ignoble end to such a magical and delicate operation of nature.

Restore Cootes is seeking the cooperation of the University to reclaim the adjacent lands from their current use for parking McMaster's cars (on a lot which for the majority of each week remains near empty) so that it can be restored to its former natural glory.

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Binkley's Pond, gone for parking

Jacob Binkley (1806-67), great grandson of Marx [Binkley], built the handsome stone house that still stands at 54 Sanders Blvd at the head of a ravine. The house was completed in 1847 and named Lakelet Vale, as it had a little spring-fed lake at the rear. Binkley's Pond, as it was known, was used for skating, fishing, and good times. It is now the Zone 6 parking lot at McMaster University on the west side of Cootes Drive. Loreen Jerome, The Way We Were "The House that Jacob Built" Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. (AWWCA) http://www.awwca.ca/articles/ Skater's on Binkley's Pond circa 1917, now a McMaster parking lot

Stairs Connect Us: Please Sign A Petition

A group of residents in the University Gardens neighbourhood are seeking improved connections for active transportation. The neighbourhood sits on a plateau above McMaster's west campus parking lots. A path through a wooded section between Grant Boulevard and McMaster's parking lot "P" is the shortest and most direct route that connects hikers, and commuters walking or cycling, but it is on the side of a hill that becomes treacherous in winter. At the bottom of the hill, a concrete bridge spans the narrow Ancaster Creek that is the dividing line between Hamilton's Ward 13 (Dundas) and Ward one's Ainslie Woods North neighbourhood. SIGN THE PETITION HERE Existing stairs were removed by the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) with no plans for replacement. Area residents have started a petition to request a replacement set of stairs and will use the petition as support when they go to the HCA Board meeting in early June. The text of the petition reads: The Ham...

Design for nature not cars in McMaster west campus

Monday, January 20, 2020 Rethinking McMaster's West Campus Floodplain and Simple I really hope that the vision for west campus does look to rehabilitate the floodplain under McMaster Parking Lot M. In these times of global climate emergency, what better contrast than cars parked on top a coldwater wetland. One is a source of our current predicament, and the other is a part of the solution to mitigate the issues we face. Meanwhile: Trail to Trespass McMaster still has to come to terms with the fact they won't allow people currently parking in the west campus to use the perfectly lovely remnant of the former Royal Botanical Gardens nature trails to access campus. It's very odd that it was easier to get hundreds of parking spaces removed to create the required 30-metre buffer to the coldwater creek there than it is to get McMaster to stop blocking access to the trail. I'm hoping to open (another) conversation with McMaster about this trail. In the mean...

RESTORE COOTES

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