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Looking for Clues

Armed with an old trail map and a historical description of a hike though Coldspring Valley in 1961, a group on interested (and interesting) people retraced the steps of W.J. Lamoureux, the Royal Botanical Gardens' Conservationist back in the days when Coldspring Valley was still an RBG Nature Sanctuary and not McMaster University parking.

A checklist of plants that Lamoureux mentioned in this description of his walk along some of the trails was made available to the 20 people who came to this event last evening, and we tried our best to navigate a route that approximated the steps of Mr. Lamoureux, searching for relatives of the vegetation he described.

We also took time to discuss events playing out in the West Campus parking lots, which include Restore Cootes' initiative to have McMaster create a 30metre naturalized buffer between the parking and Ancaster Creek, which forms the western boundary of the parking lots, and another project that would see the southern section of the parking (closed to cars for over 3 years due to a construction project) turned over to professors from McMaster so they can transform it into an on-campus wetland restoration research facility. Both these initiatives are ongoing.

A special thank you to Jen Baker from the Hamilton Naturalist Club for her enthusiastic support for this event.


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