Chatham-Kent take heart – there are folks here striving to do their best for Mother Nature.
Take the Kerr-Wilson Renaturalization Corridor off of Middle Line south of Chatham for example. There, Bob and Moira Kerr are returning 12 acres of land to the way it once was.
With a few enhancements of course.
A sandy area for turtles, designated snake habitat and specialized weirs that allow fish to navigate the Flooker-Hinton drain are all part of the team effort that includes the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority, Chatham-Kent and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
It will take a few years, but the dusty piece of land will again offer a life-line to plants and wildlife.
The parcel was one of six properties featured in the LTVCA’s recent conservation tour, proof positive that people actually care about the health of the land.
Let’s compare that to what’s going on elsewhere in C-K, where in some spots, nature continues to take a beating.
It’s happening on properties where owners continue to take down woodlots unfettered.
That’s because Chatham-Kent refuses to take a stand to protect the small bit of forest cover that remains.
Whether it’s due to the American influence of “you can’t tell me what to do,” absentee landlords or Big Ag corporations trying to suck the profits out of every last inch of ground, woodlots continue to vanish.
Or maybe those responsible just don’t know any better. But that seems unlikely.
A year ago, council voted to get rid of a temporary woodlot protection bylaw prohibiting clear cutting in a narrow 9-8 vote.
That’s pretty close.
The majority of Ontario municipalities have tree-cutting bylaws in place to protect forests. Yet, Chatham-Kent continues to be the one of the outliers with the local ag lobby continuing to petition government to allow them to do as they please.
Around the globe, world leaders grapple with the fallout from climate change. High temperatures are setting records, water levels are rising, storms are becoming fiercer, cities are becoming intolerably hot.
One of the solutions is to protect existing forests and plant more trees.
Now there’s a thought.
