Tragically six beautiful woodlots containing the endangered Butternut and a rich understory are in the path of the extension of Highway 404 north of Newmarket Ontario. A public plant rescue scheduled for Sunday, July 11, 2010 attracted close to 200 participants...but nonetheless only a tiny fraction of the woodlots were transplanted. Rescued plants were relocated into private gardens and donated to restoration projects.
The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance is fighting heroically to save wild areas in the path of the 404 extension from Queensville to Keswick. Please assist them by contacting Premier Dalton McGuinty and your MPP to protest the path of this highway.
For more information about the proposed rescue: contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or the Maskinonge River Recovery Project Coordinator, Andee Pelan, at 905-895-1281 ext 244, cell: 905-955-6184. Click "read more" for details.
Please help halt the senseless destruction of other pristine forests. Urge the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to bypass wild areas!
The following letter was sent by the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance to protest the 404 Highway extension:
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Room 281 Legislative Building Queen's Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1
Re: Proposed Highway 404 Extension
Dear Premier McGuinty:
The Ontario Greenbelt Alliance is a member group of over 80 environmental groups and citizens' organizations who are working together to strengthen and protect Ontario’s Greenbelt. Representing communities from across the Greenbelt we have seen first-hand how poorly-planned development is tearing up Southern Ontario’s fragile natural systems and greatly appreciate the systems approach to environmental protection that the Greenbelt affords.
The undersigned organizations have not only supported the Greenbelt, as developed by your government, but we have also worked tirelessly to protect it.
That is why we are collectively calling on you to stop the proposed extension of Highway 404 from Queensville to Keswick.
The proposed extension will mean the loss of 60 acres of wetlands and mature forests and would completely undermine some of the most progressive legislation introduced by your government including; the Greenbelt Act, Places to Grow, the Endangered Species Act and the Lake Simcoe Protection Act. While we do understand that the 404 extension was approved at various stages prior to some of these initiatives, we now know better, so we are asking that you take the lead and do better.
Our specific concerns are that the proposed extension of the 404 Highway will:
1. Bisect the Protected Countryside of the Ontario Greenbelt and allow growth outside of areas identified in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
2. Constitute an environmental disaster for the Maskinonge River. At present the Maskinonge sub-watershed is 13% forested, which is far lower then the 40% natural cover target set by the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan.
3. Dramatically increase the flow of contaminants, such as road salt, into the watershed, including the sensitive Maskinonge River that flows from the protected Oak Ridges Moraine directly into Lake Simcoe.
4. Have a significant impact on a number of identified and protected species, including turtles and plants, and mitigation proposed by proponents cannot compensate for the loss of natural native habitat.
The only full environmental assessment for this extension was completed in 1996 and does not accurately address the true impact of this project, nor does it consider the extension in light of new and important environmental legislation. Therefore, we respectfully request that the Ontario government defend the Greenbelt Act and the Lake Simcoe Protection Act by immediately halting the extension of Highway 404, from Queensville to Keswick, in order to better ensure that Ontario’s natural environment is not compromised unnecessarily.
We look forward to your response and in meeting with you to discuss the above in greater detail.
