Cloud hangs over marsh

[Spiel]

Cloud hangs over marsh

 

May 30, 2008

Eric McGuinness / The Hamilton Spectator

 

 

Hamilton Spectator File Photo

 

 

Cootes Paradise -- threatened by a proposed new plan to regulate the level of Lake Ontario -- happens to be enjoying nearly ideal conditions for fish and wildlife this spring.

 

Tys Theysmeyer, aquatic ecologist for the Royal Botanical Gardens, which owns the nature sanctuary at the west end of the Hamilton Harbour, says low water last fall helped get rid of most of the remaining carp blamed for uprooting marsh plants and stirring up sediment.

 

High water this spring is good for nesting water birds, spawning fish and other wildlife.

 

"It's perfect breeding habitat for our frogs and fish, what we need after the Biedermann (pesticides plant) fire that wiped out a lot of life last summer," Theysmeyer said in an interview.

 

" We've never had so many fish at the fishway," which excludes carp while letting desirable fish enter the marsh to spawn. "The numbers continue to rise."

 

The present plan for controlling outflow from Lake Ontario was adopted by the Canada-United States International Joint Commission (IJC) in the 1950s.

 

Environmentalists say it doesn't allow enough seasonal fluctuation for birds, fish and wildlife, while waterfront property owners in New York state maintain it doesn't do enough to minimize shoreline erosion.

 

A $20-million, five-year study of alternatives produced three options, but the commission set them aside in favour of a compromise called Plan 2007.

 

Theysmeyer, and most environmental interests, prefer one of the original three known as Plan B+.

 

The N.Y. Department of Environmental Conservation says the IJC proposal will damage the lake ecosystem as much or more than the current plan, prompting Governor David Paterson to ask U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to intervene on behalf of Plan B+.

 

Ontario Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield says Plan 2007 does have many good features, but said she believes there is more merit in B+.

 

The IJC is holding 10 public hearings around the lake, the first in Jordan at 7 p.m. June 9 at the Best Western Beacon Harbourside Inn and Conference Centre, 2793 Beacon Blvd.

 

For more information, go to the IJC website at ijc.org.