3 writings to our mother
Untitled article
John Bacher
Since 2008 there has been an eight year struggle to protect a 500 acre , predominately old growth Carolinian swamp forest in Niagara Falls from urbanization . While opponents have so far defeated schemes to stop the biggest recent assault on Canada ’ s most diverse habitat , home to such threatened species as old growth Black Gum trees , and Honey Locusts with massive thorns that are a relic of the Pleistocene , the scheme is still slowly proceeding through the review process . Part of the effort to achieve approval is propagating a myth about good buffers around the areas on the site which are off limits to bulldozers because of their protected wetland status .
Only about a third of the 500 acre Thundering Waters Forest is actually protected wetlands , and of this area two percent is threatened by roads . What is being proposed is tree carnage on a massive scale : the destruction of three hundred acres of mature native forest . Forest clearance on this monstrous magnitude in Carolinian Canada has not been seen since the backwoodsmen of the 19th century burnt out old growth forests for soap ashes .
There is an attempt to lull the public , review agencies and municipal councillors to sleep by a claim that the Thundering Waters wetlands will be protected by additional buffers . These are supposed to involve native bushes to protect wetland trees from storm water pollution .
The difference between the reality on the ground at Thundering Waters , and what we see in consultants reports is very stark . What the contrast points to is the difference between promises and reality . It resembles the old western movies , where the wise Medicine Man warns