(via Councillor Shad Qadri)
I would like to take a moment to provide a quick update on the tree cutting in Potter’s Key.
Today, the contractors have received their final required permits to undertake these works. As such, tree cutting will commence on Monday, November 21st and is expected to be completed before Christmas.
A culvert across Feedmill Creek will be installed to enable access to the north side of the property and the contractor has been informed to access the site through the temporary access road, off of Hazeldean Road.
Forestry department met with Minto representatives earlier this week to take a look at how they are determining the cut boundary for the Potters Key development. Areas have been surveyed and flagging ribbon is being used to delineate the areas that will be protected.
If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office via email at Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca. I will be certain to update the community as any updates on this file occur.
What will Stittsville be doing to stay on top of trees that help with oxygen and carbon levels whilst increasing the population in our quaint town?
Jackson Trails now has a straight-on view of Echowoods. No offense but trees are (make that WERE) so much nicer to see through my windows. sigh.
So much for the City of Ottawa’s Protocol for Wildlife Protection during Construction. The much watered-down Protocol had at least included “Best Practices” about avoiding sensitive times in initial clearing such as “winter when overwintering and hibernating wildlife may be physically unable to escape from the site or may freeze or starve to death if forced to leave their dens and food caches”. The City urged that site clearing avoid sensitive times such as this, stating that “otherwise, additional mitigation measures should be employed to reduce the impacts”.
What mitigation measures have been applied in this Minto development to avoid the devastating consequences to wildlife? Or, is this just another example of empty rhetoric on the part of the City and business as usual for developers?
Well, what to say other than I am hardly surprised at this new show of complete and utter disregard this City seems to have chosen as a trademark around Stittsville in the last few years, as if turning a quaint village into a dismal suburb devoid of vegetation and wildlife was its only goal. After destroying a vital beaver dam just before the first snow fall of this year, endangering the inhabitants of the nearby lodge ready to overwinter along the TransCanada Trail, this City is now allowing for this carnage of trees and already hibernating (or ready to do so) wildlife.
When is Ottawa ever going to wake up and realize, as have done countless Canadian cities, that Nature is essential and vital to our well-being and survival?
I am absolutely appalled and sickened how animals can be crushed to death by bulldozers and nobody is doing anything about it. For those animals that manage to escape, where are they suppose to go with winter approaching? The City of Ottawa’s Wildlife Construction Protocol was drawn up to protect wildlife for this exact reason. Shame on the City of Ottawa for not properly enforcing it and shame on our Councillor for not standing up for our wildlife and doing more to see that the protocol is enforced in his riding. Why is wildlife protection a joke for the City of Ottawa? If a developer came onto someone’s property and crushed a dog’s house with a dog in it, we would be horrified, so why is this any different? How can we turn a blind eye to this carnage? We all know that development can not be stopped, but we can see to it that it is done in an moral and ethical way.
As others have commented above, natural areas provide homes to many species of birds and wildlife, which are particularly vulnerable during certain times of year, notably the spring birthing season and winter. For protection against the harsh winter elements, non-migratory birds make their homes in natural tree cavities, grass thickets, evergreens or shrubs. The city’s Wildlife Construction Protocol requires builders to take into consideration the wildlife surrounding their site to minimize the damage to nature. I certainly hope the city will stand firm on this requirement for Potter’s Key and other development sites.
Sylvie
To be fair Ottawa is one of the better cities in terms of trying to protect wild life them most cities.
Sylvie, check out Oakville and London Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta – these cities have established best practices in protecting wildlife and natural habitat. Given that Ottawa promotes its itself as a ‘green and environmentally-sensitive’ city and given that it’s the nation’s capital, you’d think it would try to at least do as well. Instead, we continue to trap and kill beavers in provincially-significant wetlands and fail to implement policies like the Wildlife Construction Protocol which taxpayers paid for and community groups wasted time on.