Nature Canada’s Ted Cheskey will lead hike at Ostrander Point
Administrator | May 14, 2012 | Comments 5
On Thursday May 17, Ted Cheskey from Nature Canada will lead a nature Hike at Ostrander Point Crown Land Block. This is a unique opportunity for everyone to see what we will lose if the Ontario Government persists in its plan to allow Gilead Power to develop Ostrander Point into an Industrial wind turbine facility.
This week the spring flowers are blooming at Ostrander, the frogs are singing and the birds are nesting. All this life will be destroyed when the bulldozers move in to build access roads and turbines pads. A short walk down Helmer Road brought us to many small ponds jumping with young leopard frogs. Red osier dogwood shrubs were budding and early willow was in full leaf. Several small wild plum trees were in full bloom. The fragrant sumac bloomed everywhere. Their small clusters of yellow flowers at the top of bare branches are endemic to the thin soils of the alvar. Nearby, early buttercup bloomed cheerfully through the dry grasses. The white star- shaped flowers of field chickweed shone in clumps all over the Crown land block. We discovered beautiful periwinkle coloured wood phlox and Dutchmans’ breeches in a wooded area. Our visit was capped by the discovery of a female black swallowtail butterfly – resting in the grass. And this was just a twenty-minute visit!
This is life as normal in many parts of the County at this time of year. However, maybe they will not be so normal if we allow industrialization of this paradise. This wild and undeveloped habitat is so important to the birds arriving daily across Lake Ontario. It is a refuge and resting place after the long journey across the Lake. Many of them breed and nest here in the County – we watched a northern harrier glide across the landscape as we walked. Many of the beautiful little warblers rest, feed and move on to breed in the boreal forest.
Gilead must not be allowed to destroy this very important natural place. For it is clear, if Ostrander Point is developed, the rest of South Marysburgh will also be developed. WPD with its White Pines development is waiting in the wings. With approval of these projects 30 wind turbines will be installed in the Important Bird Area that sweeps across the south shore – with an additional 8 turbines adjacent and close to the heronry at Gull Pond. Not only will the refuge for migrating birds be destroyed, we know from Wolfe Island data that many migrating birds and bats will be killed.
To see Ostrander Point for yourself, join us on May 17 at 8 am at the Elizabeth and Mary St parking lot to car pool to the corner of Babylon and Helmer Rds where our walk will start at 8:30.
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The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists, founded in 1997, is an affiliate of Ontario Nature. It provides an educational forum dedicated to the study, promotion, appreciation and conservation of the flora and fauna within Prince Edward County. The public is welcome at the meetings held on the last Tuesday of the month from September to May, except December, at Bloomfield Town Hall. Guest speakers introduce a variety of nature related topics. All members are encouraged to participate at meetings by sharing their experiences and observations. Regularly scheduled field trips in the vicinity offer members the opportunity to experience various habitats. Membership in PECFN is open to all. Contact: Prince Edward County Field Naturalists, P.O. Box 477, Bloomfield, Ontario K0K 1G0 Or Cheryl Anderson 613-471-1096
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What a great walk – more later with all the details.
County Sustainability Group, your’e up to bat! Put on the hiking boots!
It is so sad to think all of this will be destroyed maybe by next year this time
Could we take a video of the walk and send it to Dalton or better still take it to him–I am sure County Live could produce one and the all those clever people from CCSAGE could march on Queen’s Park with it.
It appears that Dalton does not only care about wild life but has littlle use for humans too since he wants to cut back money for doctors too.
For those folk who do not understand the nature of the impact that these Industrial Wind Turbine developments will have on the wildlife inhabitants of Ostrander I suggest you do a google search of the keywords “industrial noise animal behavior”. It will present many thousands of scientific references to the destructive nature of industrial noise. These types of scientific references have been conveniently ignored by governments and pro-wind advocates. Their propaganda in this respect is little more than ignorance, lies and deception. As for the self serving tripe presented by the spokesmen of the County Sustainability Group, with their contention that Industrial Wind Turbine developments is somehow going to ensure “biodiversity” and “survival” of wildlife, this assertion is completely without scientific merit. To this point not a single spokesman from this group has presented any credentials which would qualify them to make any assertions in this respect. Nor are they qualified to make scientific verification of any references they chose to endorse their ideological doctrine.
I hope a lot of people come out for this.