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
Willow Cutting response by Richard Pope
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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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