on the edge autumn 2011

Newsletter of the Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment

Autumn 2011 Issue No. 83 ISSN 1491-2740

IN THIS ISSUEUnderstanding quarries and pits Page 4

The Escarpment’s Aggregate Uses Page 6

Acton Quarry Update 5

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEby Robert Patrick

After the last issue teaser about this issue being all about aggregates and how CONE works with the industry, I was challenged with “where do I begin?”. CONE was formed after Dufferin Construction blew the “Gap in the Niagara Escarpment” at its Milton quarry. Concern for the damage that aggregate extraction posses to the Niagara Escarpment has been front and centre to CONE since our inception in 1978. It came to a head when our partner group, Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources (POWER), and CONE together opposed Dufferin’s Milton quarry expansion in 2002 to 2006. Dufferin won with a proposal of perpetual pumping as part of its Adaptive

Management Plan (AMP) to mitigate damage to the environment including the protection of Jefferson Salamander breeding ponds. We have learned through testimony at the Nelson’s Mount Nemo quarry hearings that this Dufferin AMP is not working and that former Jefferson Salamander breeding ponds have lost water and have not functioned for the past two years. The Ministry of Natural Resources has now intervened and the AMP has to be modified for the spring of 2012.

Although Adaptive Management Plans are a step in the right direction, the triggers for intervention and the necessary adaptive changes as monitored by the producer are far too slow to work to reduce negative impacts on the environment, be it species habitats, water quantity, or water quality. The solution would be lower trigger thresholds monitored by a third party (not the producer) who then informs all parties to respond in a joint resolution. CONE is working in this direction with the aggregate industry.

on the edge | autumn 2011

Three years ago, CONE and five other Environmental, Non-Governmental Organizations joined with five aggregate producers and the Ontario Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (OSSGA) to form the Aggregate Forum of Ontario (AFO). The AFO Developed the Change Agenda “To provide for the continual improvement of the Ontario aggregate industry through the development of a voluntary consensus on environmental, industry and community outcomes, and to jointly represent that consensus as a change agenda, and seek support from interested stakeholders to implement the change agenda.”

The current members of the Aggregate Forum of Ontario are: CONE, Ontario Nature, STORM Coalition, The Nature Conservancy of Canada, The Couchiching Conservancy, Gravel Watch Ontario, Lafarge Canada Inc., Capital Paving Inc., CBM Aggregates, Walker Aggregates, Miller Group, OSSGA

The purpose of the Aggregate Forum of Ontario is to: a.Develop, a certification program for aggregate operations in Ontario; including developing, maintaining and on a regular basis reviewing: i.A statement of guiding principles; ii.Best Practices, including a training program; iii.An incentive program; and, iv.Certification policies and procedures. b.Develop a communications strategy that promotes the purpose, benefits and procedures of membership and the certification program. c.Develop a financial strategy to implement the certification program and communications strategy. d.Develop membership criteria, review membership applications and assign “green” memberships to qualifying applicants.

The AFO hired Deloitte to study several Certification Processes currently being used in various industries and to recommend a certification model to the AFO based on: aggregate industry, ENGO and stakeholder input interviews. Deloitte has just presented the AFO with a Certification model that we will be rolling out to stakeholders for comments. I personally believe we at the AFO are going in the right direction and that those who jumped to initiate SERA will be rejoining us in developing a single Aggregate Certification Standard.

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QUARRIES vs PITS:UNDERSTANDING THE HOLES IN THE ESCARPMENTWritten by CONE President, Robert Patrick

Pit is a source of aggregate deposited by a Glacier twelve to sixteen thousand years ago. The producer is digging into an Esker, Kame, Drumlin or a Morraine. The deposit is usually on top of the bed rock and often above the water table. The rock is already stones of various sizes that are crushed on site to the proper construction grade specifications. The environmental impact of a pit is usually less than that of a quarry unless aggregate producer extract from below the water table. If the aggregate producer does go below the water table it becomes a dredging operation and the lake that is created is ground water. We of CONE worry for the water quality because the water will flow through and out of the lake to become an aquifer for wells.

Quarries are bed rock surface mines. The rock is blasted with explosives, then crushed to the specification for the desired construction product. Many quarries mine below the water table. The quarry extraction foot print disrupts the under ground water courses for ever. The water flowing into the quarry floor has to be continuously pumped out while the quarry is in operation every hour of every day for 40 to 80 years. Blasting introduces ammonia ions into the water that can affect the breathing function of fish and amphibians and in cases, lead to their death. Extraction draws down the water table around the quarry, know as its cone of influence. Neighbouring wells with in this cone of influence area are affected often running dry and or becoming contaminated. Quarries are dusty causing particulate air pollution. Blasting destroys neighbouring homes causing cracks in foundations and broken windows. The quarries on the escarpment are mining different qualities of dolostone the ancient coral based magnesium infused limestone cap rock of the Niagara Escarpment.

The dolostone has a natural function as a water collector. Rain water falls and is funnelled to Karst features that have been formed by carbonic acified rain over the past twelve thousand years. The water seeps into the cracks and sink holes and runs through underground channels where it is filtered and protected from evaporating until it emerges from the ground as a spring and becomes a river. Extraction interrupts all of this process permanently. This is why quarries in truth are not an interim use because the hydro-geological functions have been perminently altered in a way that negatively affects water quantity and quality.


ESCARPMENT AGGREGATE USESWritten by CONE Vice President, Monte Dennis

BACKGROUND • 20% of Earth’s surface rock & 8% of the Earth’s crust is composed of limestone. [1] • Much of the limestone in Ontario is located under Prime Agriculture Land [PAL], such as on the Escarpment & in the Shelburne area where the Melancthon quarry is proposed. • Approximately 55% of Escarpment aggregate is used for roads. • 68% of Escarpment aggregate could be replaced from other sources. [5] • The citizens of Ontario consume more aggregate per capita than any one else in the world [ approximately 14 tons per capita ]. We do this simply because we can, however it comes with a hefty price tag, which we have not yet begun to pay for.

ROADS & HIGHWAYS Composition of source rock determines long term performance of roads. With new specifications, aggregate from many pits are not suitable so demand from Escarpment quarries & from the Carden Plain in the Kawartha Lakes area is and will increase.

Perpetual pavement is a heavy-duty pavement alternative, [40% thicker than standard pavement] with a flexible multi-layer asphalt structure that’s designed to withstand heavier loads and resist structural failure for at least 50 years & requires only periodic renewal, [surface layer every 10 to 15 years]. Traditional pavement lasts about 30 years and requires periodic reconstruction. [3]

While perpetual pavement may be cheaper in the long term it demands even more additional aggregate from the Escarpment. Perpetual pavement is

presently being tested in Ontario.


The Recommendations in Aggregate Study in Jan 27/05 included narrowing road width. This represents a weak & feeble attempt to conserve.

NEGLECTS & OMISSIONS

No Carrying Capacity Analysis, has been initiated in Ontario, to determine if the Escarpment can support more extraction or to determine if Canada & Ontario can support the elimination of more Prime Agriculture Land [PAL]. About 80% of PAL in Canada is located in Ontario. Agriculture reports have been warning of agriculture land disappearing since the late 1960’s, or perhaps even before. The thinking has been that there is always more. We have reached a critical point in time where there is, in fact, very little remaining. This land has been disappearing at an alarming rate and as such will lead to Canada’s inability to feed itself. Without such an analysis we are engaged in nothing short of blind neglect and rape.

Some quarry operators also want to manufacture asphalt in quarries. This would encourage even further use of virgin limestone in place of using suitable alternatives. To make asphalt from virgin material from the Escarpment is the highest insult one can direct towards this valuable resource. This would also involve trucking in tar products, another foreign substance, which would further threaten the Escarpment water sources.

COST

The cost of aggregate does not reflect any reality of the actual cost.

“Artificially low prices in the heavily regulated industry is a form of subsidy that does nothing to encourage conservation or alternatives to newly mined aggregate”. “Effectively the Province is giving it away”. [2]

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The cost of aggregate must be greatly increased to reflect it’s true value, to encourage recycling, increase the use of alternatives & to curtail wasteful practices.

The wasteful practice of subsidizing the trucking & aggregate industries must come to an end.

RESOURCE WASTE

The highest & best use for limestone is in the manufacturing of cement & the making of concrete.

Using limestone as road/rail bed, backfill, bank retention etc. is a waste of a valuable natural resource. For these uses there exist many other sources. These sources would cost a little more for transportation, however cost is relative, & when it is compared to further destruction of the Escarpment, alternate sources become very inexpensive.

If we as a society, in the past, had allocated our resources responsibly we would not be destroying the Escarpment to the extent that is now going on.

To allow further quarrying of the Escarpment is to condone past, wasteful behavior.

TWO ALTERNATIVES TO START CHANGE

1 Ontario must develop a balanced, sustainable transport system that does not depend on just highways, thus dramatically reducing the quantity of aggregate required.

A 2 lane highway requires 15,000 tonnes/km of aggregate, while a 6 lane asphalt freeway requires greater than 48,000 tonnes/km.

The width of a rail corridor is [30 m] 100 feet, compared to a super highway, which requires [170 m] 560 feet.

A rail corridor does not demand high quality aggregate for a bed, nor replaceable finishing surfaces. A rail corridor would result in using aggregate alternatives from sustainable sources at about 90% less quantity.

Two rail tracks carry the same number of people in a day as 16 lanes of highway. One double-stacked train carries the same cargo as 300 trucks. [4]


2 An existing quarry could be used as a crushing/sorting centre.

Other forms of aggregate could be brought in by train, crushed & sorted for distribution to local end users. These other forms of aggregate could be mining slag, granite [such as located in Marmora ON], recycled concrete and other waste materials, presently being dumped as landfill.

The wasteful practice of insisting that virgin aggregate sources be close to demand would also be eliminated.

The world has seen the potential destruction of another UNESCO designated area with the oil spill in Australia & the Great Barrier Reef. That spill may have been an accident, the quarrying destruction of the Escarpment UNESCO area is no accident.

We can all live in hope that someday there will be an outbreak of Political Will & Common Sense.

[1] Doug Bennet & Tim Tiner, Up North [2] Mark Wimfield, Daily Commercial News & Construction Record, June 30/11 [3] “Pavement breakthrough bodes well for infrastructure investment”, Engineering Dimensions, July/Aug 2011. [4] Peter Schwartzman, Trucks vs Trains - Who Wins, www.thezephyr.com/environ/trucktrain.html [5] OSSGA, “The Hole Story”

page 9

EDMUND ZAVITZ’S RIDE

by CONE Board member, John Bacher

Listen my children and you shall hearOf the long ride of the century

In early October of 1905Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year

He said to his friend, “If the deserts marchthen it will be a terrible fright,Can you imagine such infamy

Than having our land bare and parchedI must go to meet E. C. DruryTo plan a restoration strategy,

I am ready to cycle and spread the alarmThrough every Ontario village and farm

For the country folk to be up to arm.”

Then he said, “Good night” and with a shiny bikeSet off for Drury’s on Crown Hill’s height

Down York Road and up Yonge StreetHe cycled with a fast and powerful beat

And yet, through the gloom and the lightThe fate of the province was riding that night,As the tires spun out by the bike in its flight

To rescue a land from flame and heatOf massive sand piles and dunes all heaped

Across the barren Oak Ridges MoraineWithout any trees on its terrain

You know the rest, In the books you have readHow the dunes disappeared and vanished dead

In the hour of darkness and peril and need The people awakened and listened to hear

The blazing tires that ended fearBut remember the task

Is only half doneAnother billion treesAnd victory is won.


When Edmund Zavitz set off from the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) in Guelph in October of 1905 to meet the future Premier of Ontario E. C. Drury at his farm in Crown Hill north of Barrie, the Niagara Escarpment was in a pitiful state. Except for peculiar rugged areas that were beyond the reach of grazing cattle and are now appreciated as old growth cliff edge cedar forests, most of the Escarpment was a barren wasteland. Livestock would graze along the

Escarpment turning most of what is now lush and vigorous forests into boulder strewn bare rocks. Forests that were able to survive such assaults were frequently dying, since heavy grazing would prevent the regeneration of young trees. Tree cutting was done quite ruthlessly with slash being left into the woods, making them a dangerous tinder box for destructive forest fires.

In 1905 a 30 year old recently appointed OAC Lecturer Edmund Zavitz decided to do something dramatic to change the threats to Ontario’s forests. He cycled the distance of 160 kilometres from Guelph to Drury’s Crown Hill farm north of Barrie likely travelling the best maintained roads in this period. These now are Highway 7, and then and now Yonge Street. He then stayed for several days with Drury and toured the desert wastelands of Simcoe County. They also picked out the located of what became following Drury’s election as Premier, the provincial tree nursery at Midhurst. It is located in what is now Springwater Provincial Park.

continued...

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Edmund Zavitz tree planting in Guelph, 1905.

The friendship between Drury and Zavitz began following the epic ride to Crown Hill did bring out major benefits for the Escarpment. One of the first was the Agreement Forest program which was initiated in 1921. This helped municipalities to acquire land to purchase for forest protection. This began to be applied to the Escarpment starting after Dufferin County joined the in 1931. It took part after County Treasurer, James Henderson toured the Midhurst nursery and became inspired by how it transformed a desolate desert into a place of beauty.

Zavitz found that County Forest system was inadequate to the task of reforesting Ontario resulting in the formation of Conservation Authorities. The campaign for them was launched by Zavitz and Drury at the founding meeting of the Ontario Conservation and Reforestation Association in Barrie in 1937. As a result in 1946 the province passed both the Conservation Authorities Act and the Trees Act, which for the first time restricted tree cutting on private lands in Ontario. The province also provided better funding for extension services to farmers in Southern Ontario. This education eventually largely eliminated the problem of farmers grazing livestock in forests.

I resolved to repeat Edmund Zavitz’s epic ride to draw attention to uncompleted aspects of his program of saving forests. The reforestation programs he initiated, although planting a billion trees, were terribly cutback in the 1990s. This has the Environmental Commission of Ontario to call for the planting of another billion trees. Also parts of the province, (although mercifully not the Niagara Escarpment, partly because the work of the Niagara Escarpment Commission in encouraging the adoption of the model tree by-law of Halton Region) area not adequately protected by tree by-laws. Forests also are threatened by urban sprawl, new expressways and related quarry pits.


When my wife Mary Lou and I began the two day cycling ride on October 12th from the Zavitz Pines at the Guelph University Arboretum we were pleased to be met by a director of CONE, Monte Dennis. He has spent much of his life protecting the forests Zavitz restored on the Escarpment from new threats of expressways and quarries. The grounds of the Arboretum have assumed the basis of a shrine that celebrates Zavitz’s ecological restoration achievements. Despite the rain, the sun shone through. This gave the grove of towering pines a splendid glow.

Accompanied briefly by Marty Collier, who helped get my bicycle in better order, Mary Lou and I sped through the Guelph Drumlin Fields. They provide a lovely forested buffer for the adjacent Niagara Escarpment. Cycling through this restored landscape of Zavitz’s conifer plantations changing into wetlands shaped by re-introduced beavers and mixed forests is a moving experience. This emerald magical mosaic contrasts vividly with the bleak graveyard of relic forests which would have greeted Zavitz in 1905.

What I read in the reports of the various conservation authorities through which Mary Lou and I cycled underscores the significance of the restoration of the Niagara Escarpment’s forests. The only part of the entire Grand River watershed which has reached 30 per cent forest cover is the little corner in Halton Region which is part of the Niagara Escarpment. What is read in reports is echoed in the reality with which we speed along. It is seen in the clear cold streams we pedal across and the magnificence of soaring Turkey Vultures in the skies.

The next day as we cycle through the Oak Ridges Moraine there is a horrible contrast to the majesty of the restored ecological splendour of the Niagara Escarpment. The only area of the Oak Ridges Moraine where a narrow natural band across Yonge Street has been established is in the vicinity of Bond Lake.

continued...

page 13

Near where the Oak Ridges Moraine Trail crosses Yonge Street a chain link fence appears. It proclaims that despite the slow moving land swap that rescued this area that it remains private land and trespassers are barred. The cycling path we take is a trail of battles. One is the attempt to turn into a housing development in Richmond Hill on the former David Dunlap Observatory, a 185 acre former park reforested by Zavitz.

At Crown Hill we meet Robert and Robert Jr. Drury, the 7th and 8th generation of the family that have lived at Crown Hill since the first, Joseph Drury, came here from England in 1819. The eighth generations living here in harmony with their land give hope that our dream of another billion trees in southern Ontario can actually be realized.

John Bacher is the author of Two Billion Trees and Counting: The Legacy of Edmund Zavitz, published by Dundurn Press.


ACTON QUARRY PROPOSED NEW LICENSE & EXPANSIONSubmitted by Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources

Protect Our Water and Environmental Resources (P.O.W.E.R.) was formed in the mid 80s to oppose a garbage dump from going into the Acton Quarry. P.O.W.E.R.’s name actually comes from the fact that the Acton Quarry, as a below watertable mining operation, has an impact on our water. If the garbage dump had been allowed, there would most likely have been an impact on our water. Since successfully defending the water in Halton Hills and stopping the dump, P.O.W.E.R. has remained an advocate for the environment and has been deeply involved with trying to maintain the integrity and protection of the Niagara Escarpment. More than 20 years later, P.O.W.E.R. finds itself back at the Acton Quarry, objecting to the proposed new licence that would result in another 50 plus years of impact on the Niagara Escarpment.

The Application

On March 19, 2009 Dufferin Aggregates/Holcim Inc. (Canada) brought forth an application to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) for a Class A Licence (Quarry Below Water Table) to expand its existing 205 ha Acton quarry by approximately 124.4 ha. The area includes both Niagara Escarpment and Greenbelt lands in the application area. The existing Acton Quarry is east of Regional Road 25 and south of 22nd Sideroad, approximately 1km south of Acton. The areas designated for inclusion in the Acton Quarry licenced area (if the application is approved) include roughly 36 hectares on the north (towards Acton) and 88 hectares on the south towards (17 sideroad). Of course the land also extends east and west of the Acton Quarry, within this north south description. Doing the math, if the licence is approved, the Acton Quarry will be roughly 330 hectares or 815 acres, or 3.3 square kilometers or 815 football fields in size. The application, if approved, will extend the life of the quarry by 18 – 24 years and allow for the mining and removing of 4,000,000 tonnes of rock a year.

Where are we in the application process?

On March 19, 2009, Dufferin Aggregates/Holcim Inc. (Canada)made application to the Region for a Regional Official Plan Amendment to re-designate the subject property from Escarpment Rural Area, Agricultural Rural Area and Greenlands A and B to Mineral Extraction Resource Area. This application also makes a request to redesignate lands from Agricultural Rural Area to Greenlands B, Greenlands B to Escarpment Natural Area and Escarpment Rural Area to Escarpment Natural Area. At the same time, applications were also filed to amend the Town of Halton

Hills Official Plan and Zoning By-law, the Niagara Escarpment Plan, and to the MNR for approval of a Class “A” Licence under the Aggregate Resources Act (ARA).

In theory, the application was deemed complete on April 14, 2009 by the MNR. This could of triggered the 45 day period to provide comments on the application. However this process occurred between May 4, 2010, and will conclude on June 18, 2010. During this period P.O.W.E.R. formally objected to the application. While in theory this would mean that we are now in the process of decisions being made by the agencies, this has not yet occurred as Halton has initiated a process of a Joint Agency Review Team (JART). JART brings together the agencies to determine if the application is technically complete. In this process, outside peer reviews are engaged to review the materials submitted by the applicant. As of yet (November 25, 2011) JART has not yet deemed the technical information complete. JART does not have any decision making power to approve or deny the application.

Some of P.O.W.E.R.’s Reasons for Objection

Currently, over three-quarters of southern Ontario’s demand for aggregates is met from just two sources: our Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve, and the Oak Ridges Moraine. P.O.W.E.R. in principle objects to mining on the Niagara Escarpment as this unique land form that has many, many benefits including a place for ecological function (including a source for water) a refuge for species and place for evolutionary processes to occur. The quarry will have an impact in numerous areas as is evidenced by the numerous (and voluminous) studies that were submitted in support of the application, with more addendums being submitted through the JART process. P.O.W.E.R. is particularly concerned with the Environmental impacts and impacts directly to the Niagara Escarpment. Our concerns are very similar to those that we voiced within the Dufferin Milton Quarry and include:

• disturbance to the water table affecting both water quality and quantity (surface and ground, maintaining Escarpment seeps creeks and streams, disruption of the ground water flows, the • disruption of the water-cycle through increased evaporation due to the creation of surface ponds ,etc) • wetland Impacts (loss of significant wetlands)


• species impacts (endangered, threatened, at risk and indigenous, fisheries impacts) • landform feature connectivity (impacts form and function and increases the loss of flora and fauna) • creating a floating Niagara escarpment Plan Area • highly Engineered Project • unproven Adaptive Management Plan (primarily to address the water impacts)

Quarrying is an industrial use on the landscape. Other industrial uses include power plants. Given that the residents of Halton Hills have all ready contributed over 50 years to the greater good of Ontario, P.O.W.E.R. puts forward that like power plants, the community, and the Escarpment, has contributed significantly and should not be made to bear another 50+ years of impact ifrom an industrial type use on the Niagara Escarpment close to Acton. We have been waiting for generations to have the existing quarry rehabilitated and taken out of the licensed area. This is not acceptable. The proposed rehabilitation plan will attempt to geoengineer the area and rebuild the watershed. The suggested plan includes creating new lakes and wetlands, but the reality of the matter is that it will not be the same. Like with other mining activities, aggregate mining permanently alters the landscape, especially when it is open pit mining that goes below the water table. Halton Hills has paid its’ dues as has the Escarpment. It is time to say “Acton Quarry? – No thanks!” Environmental damage doesn’t always come in the form of an oil spill.

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A SUMMARY OF SERA’S RECYCLED ROCK SEMINAR by CONE Board member, Christine Rumley

Seminar held at the Cassie Campbell Community Centre in Brampton on October 27, 2011 presented by Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate (SERA).

This meeting was held to discuss the state of aggregate recycling currently undertaken in Ontario. It was interesting to learn that the United

Kingdom gets 24% of its aggregate from recycled materials, while in

Ontario the current use of recycled material pales at 7.2%.

Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, said that considering 176 million tons of aggregate are mined in

Ontario each year, there is a need to do it right by addressing three main issues surrounding quarrying/ mining: siting, operations, and reclamation. He pointed out that pits/mines are considered to be an “interim” use of the landscape that can result in fundamental changes over the 80 years an adaptive management plan may run. If it is an interim use then there must be another use.... what happens afterwards? In other counties such as New Zealand, progressive rehabilitation is practised, as quarrying/mining is underway. In the 1990’s progressive rehabilitation was employed in Ontario though it is not really seen today and there are pits who are not in compliance. Mr. Miller stated that the current levels of funding at the MNR were less than the 1990’s and there were fewer people available to inspect aggregate operations.

A panel of experts presented their views on the state of aggregate recycling today. Ric Holt, Pro, PhD, P.Eng, president of Gravel Watch Ontario, explained that only 13 million tons of aggregate are recycled in the province annually and that over half of the aggregate mined goes into the construction of roads. Stephen Senior from the MTO said that the MTO is the single largest user of aggregate in Ontario. This aggregate is used in the road underbed, the granular base and the asphalt. The MTO has been recycling pavement since the 70’s. Dr. Medhat Shehata, PhD., P.Eng, described the difficulties involved in using recycled materials when materials come from demolished structures that may be contaminated, are from unknown sources, and possessing unknown strength. Research is being done today to determine the shrinkage and strength of recycled materials. Moreen Miller,


president of the Ontario Stone, Sand and Gravel Association told the audience that many recycling yards in the province were full and that some had closed in 2010, largely because there is a resistance to using recycled materials. She said that government policies ought to reflect the need to use recycled aggregate.

In closing it was pointed out that there is a legitimate need for aggregate in our province but do we really require all this virgin aggregate? We dig big holes in the Niagara Escarpment to build structures, only to later dump those same structures as demolition debris into Lake Ontario. It is a cycle we need to break.

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GIVE THE GIFT OF A GREEN AND PROTECTED NIAGARA ESCARPMENT!

This year CONE is offering our members and supporters new ways to help us continue our work protecting the Niagara Escarpment. We’ve got a few unique gift ideas that would make the hiker, bird watcher, geologist or rock climber on your list glow with green. Follow along with our list of suggestions:

Make a donation to CONE

Forget the idea of a material gift and give someone the peace of mind knowing that together we’re protecting our Niagara Escarpment. Making a donation on someone else’s behalf is easy once you visit our website, niagaraescarpment.org. Simply click the Donate Now button, fill out your information, select your donation as a gift, process your payment, and finally, we’ll send you a certificate that you may print and present to your gift recipient.

Purchase a ‘Take a hike’ t-shirt

Give the hiker on your list CONE’s 100% organic cotton, Take a hike t-shirt. This cheeky tee is sure to get a chuckle the next time they’re walking on the Bruce Trail. The t-shirt displays the message ‘Take a hike’ on the front and continues on the back with ‘on the Niagara Escarpment’. These limited edition t-shirts have been manufactured without the use of chemical bleaches, dyes or pesticides. Let’s celebrate the Escarpment’s wonderful trails!

Price: $25.00, plus postage


A Gift to You!

Dear ______________________ ,Recipient’s Name

I have made a donation in the amount of $ ________ on your behalf to the

Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment.

This donation will help keep Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment protected forever.

To learn more about the Niagara Escarpment and the organization that is protecting it,

visit www.niagaraescarpment.org.

Sincerely, ______________________Donor’s Name

Wrap up an Escarpment read

Inspire a future Niagara Escarpment conservationist with these two awe-inspiring soft cover books. In the book titled, The Last Stand: A Journey Through the Ancient Cliff-Face Forest of the Niagara Escarpment, authors Peter E. Kelly and Douglas W. Larson invite you to discover the oldest living trees in Eastern North America, the Niagara Escarpment’s Eastern White Cedars.

In the recently published book titled, Two Billion Trees and Counting: The Legacy of Edmund Zavtiz, author and CONE board member, John Bacher, takes you back to the early 1900’s and introduces you to Ontario’s Cheif Forester, Edmund Zavitz. Zavitz was responsible for protecting Ontario’s forests at a time when railways and roads were ripping up the landscape.

Price: $30.00 each, plus postage

Send your passion for the Niagara Escarpment over the holidays

Let CONE provide you with some warm wishes this holiday season with our set of winter themed greeting cards. Each set includes five cards featuring a different winter scene photographed by CONE president, Robert Patrick, along the Niagara Escarpment plus envelopes. Each 5½ by 4¼ inch card also feaures this message inside, “Let this season remind you of the beauty of nature and our place in it.”

Price: $7.00 each set, plus postage Special Price for CONE Members: $6.00 each set, plus postage

Get to know it. Learn to love it. Decide to protect it. niagaraescarpment.org





ADVOCATING FOR THE NIAGARA ESCARPMENTWhen the CONE board is not together collaborating at our regular board meetings we are out in the community making our voices heard for the Niagara Escarpment’s protection and representing the many concerned citizens and environmental organizations that depend on us. This is a short list of some events that CONE was represented at over the past six months:

• Monthly monitoring of Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) meetings in Georgetown • NEC’s Public Interest Advisory Committee meeting in Thornbury • GTA West highway meetings in Halton Hills • Continuous meetings on the steering committee for Stop the Escarpment Highway Coalition (SEHC) • Nelson hearings regarding the Mount Nemo quarry expansion application • Continuous meetings with the Aggregate Forum of Ontario • MTO Round Table discussion on Transportation • PitSense community BBQ in Caledon • Citizen Meeting regarding a Milton Escarpment Subdivision • CONE board member, John Bacher’s, book launch in Toronto • Met with Niagara Escarpment Resource Network in Wisconsin • Ontario Nature’s Rally for Nature at Queen’s Park in Toronto • Foodstock to raise awareness and funds to Stop the Mega Quarry • NEC Policy Meeting

UPCOMING EVENTS Climate Reality: It’s Better to Change Laws than Light BulbsPresented by Grant Linney | Co-sponsored by POWER and Sustainable Halton HillsThursday, January 12 at 7:00pm | Georgetown Market Place, 280 Guelph Street

The Ugly but Beautiful Turkey Vultures of the Niagara EscarpmentPresented by Chris HamiltonMarch 10, 2012 | Crawford Lake, Burlington

Two Billions Trees and Counting: The Legacy of Edmund Zavitz Presented by John Bacher | Co-sponsored by Earth Day Hamilton-BurlingtonApril, 2012 | Royal Botanical Gardens’ Nature Interpretive Centre, Dundas


CONE MEMBER ORGANIZATIONSAlpine Club of Canada, The (Toronto) • climbers.orgBeaver Valley Ratepayers Association • beavervalleyratepayers.caBlue Mountain Watershed Trust Foundation • bmwt.caBruce Peninsula Bird Observatory • bpbo.caBruce Peninsula Environment Group • bpeg.caBruce Trail Conservancy • brucetrail.orgCaledon Countryside Alliance Canadian Environmental Law Association • cela.caCitizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment • cope-nomph.orgConserver Society of Hamilton and District • conserversociety.caEarthroots • earthroots.orgEscarpment Biosphere Conservancy • escarpment.caFriends of Short Hills Park • friendsofshorthillspark.caGreen Venture • greenventure.caGrey Association for Better Planning • gabp.caHalton/North Peel Naturalists’ Club • hnpnc.comHamilton Naturalists’ Club • hamiltonnature.orgNature League Ontario Nature • ontarionature.orgOwen Sound Field Naturalists • owensoundfieldnaturalists.caPitSense • pitsense.caProtecting Escarpment Rural Lands • perlofburlington.orgProtect Our Water and Environmental Resources • powerhalton.caPreservation of Agricultural Lands Society • people.becon.org/~pals/index.htmlSaugeen Field Naturalists •saugeenfieldnaturalists.comSouth Peel Naturalists Club • spnc.caSave The Oak Ridges Moraine • stormcoalition.orgToronto Caving Group, The • trigger.net/~tcg/Upper Credit Field Naturalists • uppercreditfieldnaturalists.orgWildlands League • wildlandsleague.org

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALIf you misplace the membership form included in this newsletter, please visit our website at niagaraescarpment.org and renew your membership online. When you complete your membership on our website you will have the option to automatically renew your membership come this time next year.

193 James Street South, Hamilton, Ontario L8P 3A8www.niagaraescarpment.org | [email protected]

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on the edge autumn 2011

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