Riparian Roamings

Why we want McMaster to act on their campus plan MINIMUM 30metre buffer between parking lots and Ancaster Creek (AKA Coldspring Creek):

"Riparian buffers function as water filters. When it rains, buffers trap pollutants and eroded soil before they get into the creek. While keeping the creek water clean, buffers provide food, shelter and shade for fish, frogs, birds and small animals. They also stabilize creek banks, which helps prevent soil erosion.

Environment Canada's Habitat Guidelines recommend a 30-metre buffer along cold water creeks and a 15 - metre buffer along warm water creeks for these ecological features to perform their function. There are many creeks in our watersheds that do not meet these standards.

The 1999 map of [Hamilton Conservation Authority] HCA riparian buffer data shows that the area's urban creeks have insufficient riparian buffers when compared to these environmental standards. The upper subwatersheds of Spencer Creek and Red Hill Creek show an average amount of vegetation, but still do not have adequate riparian cover along these watercourses. The headwaters of Spencer Creek and the creeks within the Dundas Valley show sufficient riparian buffers. HCA is continually working to preserve these important ecological features.

It is HCA's goal that every creek, where possible, will meet the standards for riparian buffers as defined by its governing environmental organizations.

HCA is committed to continuing efforts to work with private landowners to establish as wide a buffer as their property permits."

Despite comments from the University suggesting there exist 30m buffers, the major parking lot "M" has no active lots that are even close to 30m. Thanks to Al for sending the reference quoted above from the Watershed Report Card.

30metres away from creek in Lot M, North East section

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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

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A group of residents in the University Gardens neighbourhood are seeking improved connections for active transportation. The neighbourhood sits on a plateau above McMaster's west campus parking lots. A path through a wooded section between Grant Boulevard and McMaster's parking lot "P" is the shortest and most direct route that connects hikers, and commuters walking or cycling, but it is on the side of a hill that becomes treacherous in winter. At the bottom of the hill, a concrete bridge spans the narrow Ancaster Creek that is the dividing line between Hamilton's Ward 13 (Dundas) and Ward one's Ainslie Woods North neighbourhood. SIGN THE PETITION HERE Existing stairs were removed by the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) with no plans for replacement. Area residents have started a petition to request a replacement set of stairs and will use the petition as support when they go to the HCA Board meeting in early June. The text of the petition reads: The Ham...

Design for nature not cars in McMaster west campus

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