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October
17, 2003
MAJOR THREAT TO RED HILL VALLEY
Over
the past three days, the City of Hamilton and a private
company have fenced off a very large area of forest on the
face of the escarpment west of Mt. Albion Road. The area
includes several thousand trees and represents perhaps the
finest forested area in the path of the proposed expressway.
It includes a portion of the Bruce Trail and the main valley
recreational trail. The fenced area appears to correspond
exactly with the path of the proposed expressway. Many of
the trees have been painted with “X”s or otherwise
marked. Cutting trees here would likely be a first step
to allow blasting of the escarpment to begin. The fencing
and threat to trees appears consistent with the following
“update” issued in late August by the City’s
project director, Chris Murray:
“Further,
a request for quotations was issued for advance tree clearing
north of Mud Street and west of Mount Albion Road along
the escarpment face. The timing reflects the permitted
window of opportunity to remove vegetation without impacting
migratory birds and the southern flying squirrel. Staff
is continuously working with our wildlife specialists
to ensure that any concerns are mitigated.”
While
no contracts for construction have even been put out for
tender for this area (unless this is being done secretly
by the city), it is quite possible that actual tree cutting
may start very soon. We will try to keep you informed. The
escarpment crossing is Stage 7 of the expressway implementation
plan released last March. No work has been done at this
point on any of stages 3, 4, 5 or 6.
The
migratory bird restrictions apply from May to July. The
restrictions on the flying squirrels are in February and
March, and again in June and July. Therefore there is not
even the slightest excuse for tree cutting to take place
in advance of the city council elections on November 10.
If it proceeds, it would appear that this provocation is
designed to threaten the integrity of the elections process
and try to make irrelevant the campaigns of anti-expressway
candidates who are contesting nearly every seat on council.
Friends
of Red Hill
has issued a notice to the media. It
is reprinted at the end of this update.
Salmon that died trying to swim past
the concrete channel at Queenston Road.
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SALMON
RUN AND RESCUE UNDERWAY
The
annual fall migration of Chinook Salmon is underway in Red
Hill Creek.
Students from Churchill High School and members of Friends
rescued more than 15 of the big fish earlier today.
They
netted the salmon in the pools below the concrete channel
at Queenston Road, and ran them past this obstacle, reviving
and releasing them further upstream.
The run began yesterday and may continue through the weekend
and possibly beyond, depending on the receipt of more rain.
For Immediate Release – October
17, 2003
Expressway Tree Cutting Threatens Integrity
of Hamilton Civic Elections
The
main issue in the Hamilton city council elections is the
controversial Red Hill Creek Expressway which would remove
over 44,000 trees from Hamilton’s largest park. Now,
just three weeks before the November 10 vote, city officials
appear determined to try to end the 50-year debate over
the expressway by clearcutting thousands of the oldest trees
in the path of the road. Over the past three days, fencing
has been erected around the planned clearcut along the face
of the Niagara Escarpment, even though construction in this
area is not scheduled for several months.
Last
August, public opposition to the expressway stopped an earlier
attempt to start tree removal in another part of the valley
when several hundred people blocked construction vehicles
near Greenhill Avenue in Hamilton’s east end. Around
the same time, citizens of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations)
Confederacy occupied the construction site. The aboriginal
people have since constructed a traditional longhouse on
the site and are now heading into the eleventh week of their
occupation.
Candidates
opposed to the expressway are running for 13 of the 15 council
seats up for grabs on November 10, and stand a reasonable
chance of securing control over the council. Local media
have identified the expressway as the major issue in the
campaign. The acknowledged frontrunner for the mayor’s
job, David Christopherson, opposes the expressway. His main
opponent is Larry DiIanni, the chairperson of the city’s
Expressway Implementation Committee.
DiIanni
and the majority of the current council maintain that the
expressway is “a done deal”, but the project has
stalled in the face of the aboriginal protests and missing
provincial and federal approvals. The city has been trying
for over 16 months to obtain an authorization from the federal
fisheries department to relocate and reconstruct 7.6 kilometres
of Red Hill Creek. The city also requires a permit from
the province to push the expressway through a closed toxic
landfill.
Clearcutting
on the escarpment is part of Stage 7 of the 15-stage expressway
implementation plan. It would be followed by blasting operations
that would open an 80 metre by 15 metre cut in the face
of the escarpment — the largest road cut in the history
of the escarpment. The cut would extend back nearly half
a kilometre into the escarpment, a provincially significant
landform designed in 1990 as a World Biosphere Reserve.
The city has also not obtained a permit for this blasting
work. Instead it is relying on a 16-year-old permit for
the expressway project that didn’t contemplate any
cuts in the escarpment face.
“The
preparation for the clearcutting is clearly intended to
influence the November 10 elections”, said Don McLean,
chair of Friends of Red Hill Valley. “Apparently
some people at the city are willing to play nasty games
with the democratic process in hopes of convincing people
that it’s too late to vote for the anti-expressway
candidates who are poised to replace them.”
For
more information, contact
Friends
of Red Hill Valley
Don McLean, Chair (905) 664-8796
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