SOUTH SHORE NEEDS REAL PROTECTION   

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Only the very foolish in a family car dare navigate the rutted trails that go under the guise of roads along Prince Edward County’s south shore. Some do and their efforts at extricating themselves from the shaley mud in spring are evident. In spring, even some four wheel drives hesitate before venturing forward. However it is difficult to get hopelessly mired here as there is only a thin covering of soil over the limestone bedrock. Oak trees take on grotesque shapes, and distant bushes resemble bonsai from years of being either parched in summer’s relentless drought, or drowned in spring rains that refuse to soak away. The south shore is, in the eyes of many, a desolate, useless wasteland.

You don’t really have to be a qualified biologist to fully appreciate the importance of Prince Edward County’s south shore, from Point Petre to Prince Edward Point; just someone who understands the importance of biodiversity and how all living things, us included, are intricately linked. Proponents have been relentlessly touting its virtues as a critical staging area for migrating birds for at least a half century. However, through no particular fault of their own, they have overlooked a much larger picture.  It is more than just a place where hundreds of thousands of birds land in the spring, exhausted and hungry, after crossing Lake Ontario. It is a breeding ground for several turtle species, including the Blanding’s, a designated Species at Risk. It is where foxes roam, coyotes prowl, Monarch butterflies await suitable weather for a lake crossing, hawks stage, dragonflies hunt, and other insects multiply – the same insects upon which the migratory and resident birds feed, in those very stunted shrubs and trees that give the peninsula its character.  It is a complex biome, a delicate ecosystem that has been purring along, more or less undisturbed since 1938 when the property was used as an artillery range, the area continuing in that role with the formation of Royal Canadian School of Artillery.

Beyond the wildlife who call this area home, the entire peninsula has a history, albeit sometimes sinister and a bit mysterious. The entire largely undeveloped south shore lies within the infamous Marysburgh Vortex, a place of anomalous activity where missing ships and aircraft have fuelled theories of paranormal explanations. And when the sun sets over the flatlands, the area becomes every bit as dark as Nirvana, a boon for astronomers.

But it is the birdlife that has made the south shore what it is today. Numbers of landed migrants often exceed those at famous Point Pelee.  Numbers of waterfowl have exceeded 7.5% of the total global population for long-tailed ducks, 1.5% for white-winged scoters and 1.4% for scaup. It is for these reasons that approximately 26 square kilometres of land and 65 square kilometres of nearshore waters were officially designated as an Important Bird Area. Such designations do not come easily. The Important Bird Area (IBA) Program is part of a nation-wide initiative to conserve wildlife and habitats on private and public lands. It is an international initiative coordinated by BirdLife International, a partnership of member-based organizations in over 100 countries seeking to identify and conserve sites important to all bird species world-wide. Through the protection of birds and habitats, they also promote the conservation of the world’s biodiversity. The South Shore Important Bird Area encompasses about 30 kilometres of shoreline, the only lengthy, undeveloped strip of shoreline remaining in Prince Edward County – indeed, one of the few shorelines of Lake Ontario that has remained undeveloped. It is even on the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s list of 100 areas in Canada most needing protection – real protection, not just empty words and unfilled promises. 

In earlier years, when wind turbine development had been proposed for the Point Petre area, a group known as the South Shore Conservancy protested against wind turbine development here. Some members of the public had mixed feelings – and I was among them – and cautioned against acting too hastily in stopping clean energy until we knew more. Much has been learned since, and other groups are agreeing that wind turbine development – any development in an IBA, including Ostrander Point – is wrong when such massive numbers of migrants are at stake, unlike other less significant areas where turbines have been sited. 

The Prince Edward County South Shore IBA has been designated a globally significant IBA under the congregatory species category and nationally significant under the threatened species category. This column questions the purpose of an IBA designation if that very designation can be unceremoniously and blithely ignored at a whim. If development – any development – is permitted to take place anywhere along the South Shore Important Bird Area, then the IBA has failed in its purported purpose, and we have failed miserably by allowing it to happen.

Readers' Comments

I've just finished reading your column in this week's Gazette.  It was a perfect, and eloquent summary of why the Ostrander Point project should not go ahead.  I do hope that you will "cut and paste" it and send it in letter form to John Wilkinson, Minister of the Environment and Brad Duguid the Minister of Energy and even to John Baird the Federal Minister of the Environment.   CK: South Bay

Saw your terrific article in the Gazette.  Good to have your opinion open. I wonder how many people read anything but the sport page?  VJ: Highway 62

Thank you so much, Terry.  Your column presents the facts and asks the right questions about the future of the South Shore.  I hope genuine protection for the area will come as a result of this dispute over development. Everyone on the APPEC board is very pleased with the content and forcefulness of your comments.   HG: Demorestville

just wanted to let you know that I read your article in the paper this week and really appreciated your stand on windmills in the southern part of the county as I am sure not in favour of them either!   LA: Picton

This is excellent, some of your best writing. It has passion, indisputable knowledge and clarity, without being "preachy".  RK: Northport