25,000 reasons to vote in this contest

This has nothing to do with the upcoming election, and all to do with helping the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) win $25,000 from, gulp, an oil company. The plan is to use the cash to re-naturalize the famous "Burlington Heights" overlooking Cootes and the Hamilton Bay, reversing 200 years of environmental degradation

The RBG describes the project this way:

Royal Botanical Gardens will carry out the following activities:

- Recreate pre-settlement vegetation communities by planting native plant species and removing non-native plant species that pose a threat to the area's environmental sustainability. This will also alleviate the need for power mowing, which will help reduce our carbon footprint.

- Rejuvenate the land by converting an abandoned parking lot to a natural setting, to promote the growth of new vegetation from surrounding woodlands.

- Convert a former maintenance works area to seasonal wetlands.

- Highlight the area's historical and natural significance through various educational signs.

On that last point, I hope the area's importance to First Nations people is recognized, including being the birthplace of Kahkewaquonaby ("Sacred Feathers") who became known as the Reverend Peter Jones. Currently the historical signage honours mostly european settler war-related events.

Anyway, please consider casting your votes for this project which would enhance the natural setting and the integrity of Cootes Paradise.

Contest deadline is October 31, 2011.

Comments

Binkley's Pond, gone for parking

Jacob Binkley (1806-67), great grandson of Marx [Binkley], built the handsome stone house that still stands at 54 Sanders Blvd at the head of a ravine. The house was completed in 1847 and named Lakelet Vale, as it had a little spring-fed lake at the rear. Binkley's Pond, as it was known, was used for skating, fishing, and good times. It is now the Zone 6 parking lot at McMaster University on the west side of Cootes Drive. Loreen Jerome, The Way We Were "The House that Jacob Built" Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. (AWWCA) http://www.awwca.ca/articles/ Skater's on Binkley's Pond circa 1917, now a McMaster parking lot

Where did the water go? Art action in Lot M Parking

West Campus Eco-Art Project A walking activity and site activation on McMaster’s West Campus. West Campus Eco-Art Project is a project that incorporates creative walking activities and an artistic site activation connected with the West Campus Redesign Initiative at McMaster University. The initiative provides opportunities for connecting with nature through an on-line informational video, walking excursions and creative activities that deepen knowledge and experience with place in all its complexities (social history, citizen science, ecology and diversity). Focusing on the Coldwater creek valley on McMaster’s West Campus, participants will learn about the history and unique features of the area and will be invited to then engage with the site through observation, sketching and stencil-making. Stencils will be used to paint text and image on the parking lot asphalt to delineate a blue line that marks an historic water route. The project is supported by the McMaster Museum of Art (

McMaster's Parking Problem: Next Level

I'm sharing a recent article published in the Dundas Star News about McMaster's plan to build a - get this - $17-million dollar parking structure. Seventeen million. Yes, $17,000,000.00 That's a lot of money to provide temporary shelter for vehicles of people who choose to drive to campus. We will be following this closely. Here's the article. Cootes Drive six-storey McMaster University parking garage under review Variances or amendment to zoning bylaw expected to permit parking structure Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News, Friday, March 5, 2021 Zoning bylaw variances, or amendments, could be required for a planned six-storey, 567-space McMaster University parking garage west of Cootes Drive, and north of Thorndale Crescent. University spokesperson Michelle Donavon said the $17-million structure on parking lot K at Westaway Road will help ongoing efforts to re-naturalize parts of the west campus, by moving some surface parking into the structure. “These plans will increa

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