settlement that protected the most vulnerable lands south of
Oldfield Road coveted by developers.
Developers have been hard at work since 2010 to reverse
their defeat. The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority,
whose staff worked hard to wrest the 2010 victory have been
terrorized by vicious combinations of farm and developer
leaders. Then in the summer of 2015 came two new
announcements. One was the announcement of a review of
changes to the Conservation Authorities Act, lusted over by
developers wanting to be free of protected provincial public
servants. The other was an infamous public discussion on
“Bio-Diversity Offsetting”, designed to wipe out the 2010
rescue of the Niagara Falls Slough Forest. Although both of
these consultations will linger on until Christmas, these
absurd schemes are almost dead through the volcanic
eruption of people power.
The concept plan for what is now called the “Paradise”
scheme has now been modified to protect the wetlands and
buffer and link them through open space zoning. However,
wetland and dry forests that connect with them are still at
risk, although developers have an opportunity to build on
about 250 acres of thickets here created by past construction
spill dumping. What needs to be done now is to go out to this
threatened forest and document its rare species and habitats.
By sharing this information with the Niagara Falls Planning
Department pressure can be applied to protect more of the
treasure house of secrets.
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