Summary: Richard Pope’s memorandum highlights urgent concerns about the recent destruction at Cobourg’s cherished Waterfront Nature Park. From disrupted ecosystems to a lack of transparency in decision-making, the community feels sidelined and unheard. As advocates for a sustainable and inclusive future, Preserve Our Heritage Harbour urges Cobourg Council to update the public on plans for the Waterfront Nature Park (and its immediate environs) and reinstate community involvement.

Memorandum

Re: The Waterfront Nature Park and its Immediate Environs

From: Richard Pope

To: Director Geerts, Mayor Cleveland, Deputy Mayor Beatty, Councilllors Mutton, Barber, Burchat, Bureau, and Darling, and Municipal Clerk Brent Larmer

December 4, 2024

In Council on November 20, 2024, Councillor Mutton put forth a motion requesting “the Director of Community Services to formalize an interim management plan for the tracking and management of the [Waterfront RP] Nature Park in order to protect the valuable parkland asset and to keep the public informed … .”

This seemed like a rather innocuous request considering the great interest in this park among the public at large and the naturalist community in particular.

As we know, Councillor Mutton’s motion asking for a plan was defeated and it was replaced by a last-minute motion by Councillor Darling which was endorsed by four of the five Council members. Councillor Darling’s motion ends in the following manner: “NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Council directs staff to provide an update on harbour maintenance, operation, and repairs, to assist the community in understanding the capital repair projects in the context of Cobourg’s natural assets and suite of annual activities and services.”

Councillor Darling’s motion in itself is a good one. The community and the Council do need an update on harbour maintenance and repairs.

However, the community also deserves to be told what is planned for its new Waterfront Nature Park and its environs in particular.

The public is deeply interested in this area and was dismayed by the recent dredging operation, which not only removed excess beach sand resulting from underwater dredging, but also attacked what was thought to be a corner of the Waterfront Nature Park containing a small wetland, removing its green cover (the sand willows), and burying it in sand.

This was particularly disturbing because Recommendation 10 of the Waterfront User Needs Assessment of May, 2018 states that “Dredging of the harbour should continue, but any sand so removed should not be deposited in the Waterfront Nature Park,” and that the Town should “discontinue dumping and alteration of soils and plants on the headland.”

Whose idea was it to cut and fill the corner wetland and why? What was really behind this? It wasn’t to remove dredged harbour sand, which has been done along the beach for years. Did someone request it? The public would like to know.

Members of the community were further dismayed and shocked to be told that the green corner of the West Headland with the willows and little wetland was not even part of the Waterfront Nature Park. Who knew? 

It was included in the park in PRAC’s recommendations, and the Council thought it was included when they voted to make the area a Nature Park. Council itself did not seem to know at the time of Councillor Mutton’s recent motion that the dredged area was not in the park. It would be interesting to know who decided it was not and removed it without Council and the public being informed?

What is important, however, is that the recent work in the harbour lands is a violation of a sensitive ecosystem regardless of whether or not it is part of the Nature Park. Many are very unhappy about this.

The POHH website reflects this discontent. There is also deep concern about the deteriorating West Beach area in the Nature Park.

The public feels ignored and left aside. It feels that the big and broad public engagement over the last few years on waterfront issues has been set aside and ignored.

The Community does not “feel good” about this. The public feels the whole area needs more protecting and that nature is in peril in the area. 

After the disbanding of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, the public has no voice in these matters. The Town staff can do whatever it wants without any public consultation other than simply telling the public what it plans to do a few weeks ahead of doing it. This is what has led to the recent outcry. It did not have to be this way.

The public wants to be involved in the stewardship of the area and wants transparency in the decision making. Even Council did not seem to know about the dredging of the willows and found out at the same time as the public.

I hope Director Geerts and the Council are aware how angry people are about this. The last thing we want is a return to the need for public displays and protests. There is a better way. Surely the public could be involved with the stewardship of the area.

Suggestions:

1. Councillor Mutton’s original motion could be revisited and rephrased with staff being asked to provide Council (and therefore the public) with an update of the plans for the Waterfront Nature Park and its immediate environs, including the recently dredged area.

2. In the absence of a PRAC, Council could set up an ad hoc committee that would include members of the public, a member or members of Council, Director Geerts and staff to work on the plans for the area and how best to manage nature in light of the up-coming harbour repairs.

Perhaps there are other better ways to involve the public. I hope council will give this serious thought.

Richard Pope

— end —

Now, more than ever, Cobourg needs an official plan for the Nature Park – a plan that will safeguard natural areas, ensure sustainable development, and prevent this kind of ecological destruction in the future.

How You Can Help

We urge you to take action today. Share this post and make your voice heard!

Contact the following officials to demand transparency and a commitment to protecting Cobourg’s Waterfront Nature Park going forward.

Contact:

• Director, Community Services: Brian Geerts – bgeerts@cobourg.ca
• Mayor: Lucas Cleveland – lcleveland@cobourg.ca
• Deputy Mayor: Nicole Beatty – nbeatty@cobourg.ca
• Councillor: Miriam Mutton – mmutton@cobourg.ca
• Councillor: Aaron Burchat – aburchat@cobourg.ca
• Councillor: Adam Bureau – abureau@cobourg.ca
• Councillor: Brian Darling – bdarling@cobourg.ca
• Councillor: Randy Barber – rbarber@cobourg.ca

To make your voice count, be sure to copy in Town Policy Clerk: Brent Larmer – blarmer@cobourg.ca and request your correspondence be included in the Correspondence agenda so it’s public record.

Follow our efforts and share updates on the Cobourg Harbour Facebook Page. Together, we can ensure that the Waterfront Nature Park is preserved for future generations.

On October 20, 2024, Preserve Our Heritage Harbour (POHH) issued a communication expressing concerns about damage to the Waterfront Nature Park that will result from the Town of Cobourg’s plans to remove Sand Willows in the naturalized wetlands of the harbour.

Not only do these sand willows provide natural beauty, wildlife habitat and sand stability but they are protected as part of the Nature Park.

We call for:

• Full review by the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority of the Town’s proposed work.
• Public consultation regarding the Town’s plan for destruction of a portion of the Nature Park.
• Full disclosure of the work plan of how removal of the naturalized vegetation could possibly be done without disturbing the Waterfront Nature Park with heavy equipment.

Read the entire communication from Richard Pope below:

Memorandum

Re: Proposed “Mechanical Dredging” in the Harbourfront Nature Park

From: Richard Pope

To: Director Brian Geertz, Deputy Mayor Beatty, Councillor Mutton, Councillor Bureau, Beth Bellaire, Trish Whitney, Margaret Bain, Bill Thompson, Jeremy Fowlie, Michele Peterson, and to anyone else interested.

Date: October 19, 2024

On October 7, 2024, the Town announced its plan for expanded dredging of the harbour to maintain appropriate depths. This is, of course, necessary on an on-going basis. Dredging the Harbour is a recognized necessity.

The Town also announced that:

crews will also address the overgrown willow brush along the shoreline that is encroaching into the harbour basin.

The encroachment of this vegetation has not only altered the natural beauty of the harbour but also impacted public access to the water. Removal of the encroaching willow vegetation is essential to remove accumulated sand.

The brush removal work is scheduled to begin the last week of October and is expected to take approximately two weeks, weather dependent. Sand will be removed throughout the fall/winter as weather and contractor availability allow.

The Waterfront Nature Park will remain undisturbed throughout the process (my emphasis; a truly ludicrous statement).

Well, well. So, the Town wants to eradicate the one little green postage stamp left by the harbour. Oh, those trees.

A fully-informed former Council voted against removal of these willows though properly allowing them to be reduced on the eastern side to facilitate canoe and kayak entry.

Destruction of this naturalized area is unwarranted.

These Sand Willows are in a wetland area and anchor the very sand the Town proposes to remove. One Councillor wanted them replaced with “manicured lawn.”

Must have been a goose lover because the geese will gladly move in if the area is denuded and seeded. So will the sand willows, for what its worth. 

It is interesting that the Town considers that these willows have “altered the natural beauty of the harbour.” One could just as easily argue they provide natural beauty (to say nothing of wildlife habitat). 

It is odd that when the Canoe and Kayak Club wanted to expand slightly into this area in question, the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority would not let the canoe club expand even an inch into the willows and deemed it a “wetland.”

They sent biologists to establish this. But now the Town can dig up the entire area, which is in the Nature Park! What does the GRCA say about this? The GRCA has apparently requested a new permit application since the proposed work goes beyond the initial request.

In a memo of October 10, councillor Mutton pointed out that “Nature systems and natural plantings are used to stabilize breakwaters in many places around the world. Plants can also clean water.”

She went on to wonder why “the breakwater infrastructure repair is not undertaken first. Then, removals and trimming can be focused to specific requirements, without spending lots of money twice.”

Question: How is it that without public consultation the Town can attack a naturalized area in its own Nature Park?

Second Question: How can the removal of all the naturalized vegetation be done while letting “the Waterfront Nature Park… remain undisturbed throughout the process”? What nonsense.

Surely since the entire area in question is in a Nature Park and in what the Zuzek Report calls a “Dynamic Beach Setback,” further thought and consultation is necessary before barging ahead on this project.

Part of the reason for the Dynamic Beach Setback is to allow for wave uprush. How does removal of the willows and massive dredging of the area help this?

Director Geerts has written, “Please rest assured that the dredge operations are not in place to blindly destroy nature.”

Maybe not, but that is what these operations will do. All that underwater sand and excess sand on the beach can be and in the past has been removed without assaulting the area in the Nature Park with heavy equipment.

Map of Waterfront Nature Park

Supporting Materials

PRAC Recommendations

Willow Cutting response by Richard Pope

Share This Post and Make Your Voice Heard!

Please share this post and contact:

Director, Community Services Brian Geerts: bgeerts@cobourg.ca

Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty: nbeatty@cobourg.ca

Councillor Miriam Mutton: mmutton@cobourg.ca

Councillor Adam Bureau: abureau@cobourg.ca

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