Welcome to Restore Cootes - Cootes Drive, an 80km/h four lane divided highway, 3.2 km in length, cuts through a significant wetland in Hamilton, Ontario known as Cootes Paradise. Restore Cootes envisions a restored wetland and seeks ways to further the goal of removing this unnecessary and destructive road.

Cootes Drive was built in 1936, one of the first divided highways in Ontario. In those days wetlands were seen as impediments to “progress” a progress that put a premium on automobile mobility. As a result, a significant wetland was in filled to accommodate the road.

In the decades since we’ve learned a great deal about the intricate workings of wetlands, and have begun to appreciate the benefits they provide as natural water purifying systems, as habitat to diverse species, and contributing to the overall health of our largely urbanized community. At the same time, we’re coming to see the destructive impacts of an over-reliance on the private automobile as a prime source of mobility.

Restore Cootes, then, is an enquiry in progress, with an eye on the long term goal of removing the road and restoring the lost wetland habitat.

It’s clear that conventional wisdom retains serious biases against such thinking. But with smog and air pollution, habitat destruction, global climate change and species extinction accelerating out of control, we need to creatively embrace ways of restoring the natural world and living in harmony with it. Getting cars out of Cootes is a small step on a path of rejuvenating the earth that supports all life.