RESTORE COOTES

Turtles move slow but they can cover a lot of ground. When the weather warms in the spring, male and female turtles start to roam, with female turtles seeking nesting sites to lay eggs. They are busiest during May and June, but will be making their rounds anytime between April and October ( Source ).  The babies hatch later in the summer or early fall and are born into a world of danger, with predators being a top hazard, but roads play a role in reducing the hatchling's survival rates.  Less than 1 in a hundred turtle eggs laid will hatch and grow into an adult turtle. ( Source )    Turtles take a long time to reach sexual maturity, meaning that maintaining a robust population requires protection. Adult snapping turtles, for instance, have a 99% survival rate in the wild, but road mortality tips the scales against them. The loss of a fertile adult female creates a huge deficit in the survivability of the species in a region.  A good source for information on tu...

Please help us raise awareness of the simple thing drivers (and passengers) can do to avoid killing at-risk turtles and other wildlife on Cootes Drive between Dundas and Hamilton. TAKE OUR PLEDGE: ProtectTurtlesCootes   (takes less than one minute to complete) Alternative routes between Dundas and Hamilton exist, and taking these routes will only add a minute to most drivers reaching their destination. Often you might not even be aware you've hit a young turtle, or a snake, for example, yet in the case of turtles, each death means this at-risk group is one death closer to extirpation. Turtles take a long time to reach maturity, and most hatchlings never make it to adulthood so you can see the dilemma. Please take a minute to pledge your commitment to use an alternate route, and help Restore Cootes and other groups do their part to protect our reptile friends. A previous survey showed that 70% of respondents would do this for the turtles. Hopefully, you will join them! Thanks in adv...

A new virus infecting the local turtle population , road mortality as cars and trucks continue their shell-crushing trips down Cootes Drive. Yes, it's  WORLD TURTLE DAY and things are admittedly pretty bad for our slow-moving reptile friends. That means it's time to make some changes! Why not start with things we can easily control, like our own behaviour. Driving along Cootes? Pledge now to use an alternate route (click on the link above to take the pledge!) A minute or two will save lives!

THEY SAY: Information Report: April 3, 2017 SUBJECT/REPORT NO: Rare Turtle Recovery, Wildlife Corridor Issues and Roads of Issue at Cootes Paradise (PW16024a) - (City Wide) Traffic Issues on Cootes Drive Traffic Operations & Engineering has been working with the Ward 13 Councillor on traffic signage along Cootes Drive. Four (4) traffic signs (with flashing lights) operating during turtle migration season will be installed in the spring of 2017. The migration period for turtles is generally around the months of June, early July and September but can vary due to weather conditions. The traffic signs are useful in alerting motorists of potential turtle crossings on that roadway. RESTORE COOTES SAYS: Is it working? Is there any evidence that it is helping turtles or even slowing vehicles? We're betting it has little to no impact - the light is always flashing, if turtles are present or not, the road is built for speed and it makes it dangerous to slow down. We ...

Thinking about the other evening, tabling at Supercrawl. I set up for 6pm, and closed up at 10pm: so that's four (4) hours. Someone with a counter at the front door clicked in 1000 people. So, average 250 people per hour. (It honestly didn't feel like that many, but I have no doubt about the veracity of the reported number). I had 22 people stop and sign the actual pledge. That would average 5 people per hour signing the pledge. What's that, 12 minutes per pledge on average? 22/1000 is: 2.20% So just over 2% of attendees actually stopped and took an action. Maybe that's pretty good? I felt quite happy with the pace and the results. It's something to build on anyway, with almost all those pledgers also agreeing to join our mailing list. Before the event I had nobody on the list, now I am up over 20.

This time of year, these baby snappers are trying to get places. They have a rough time as it is, being small and snackable for some predators, and subject to road kill on Cootes Drive and Olympic. You probably wouldn't notice these when you are travelling in your vehicle at 80 km/h. Yet that's the speed limit on Cootes, which is precisely where so much wildlife lives in the adjacent marsh. So we encourage you to take our pledge, and limit your drive-time on these roads that cut through a nature preserve. Do it for the kids. Link to Pledge form: http://bit.ly/ProtectTurtlesCootes It only takes a minute to do the pledge, and it will generally only add a minute to your drive between Dundas and Hamilton to follow through on the pledge. Take another look at the baby turtles: there are your three good reasons. Thanks for your support.

Driving a car shields vehicle occupants from the visceral experience of death and destruction they wreak. Maybe that sounds hyperbolic, but let me tell you: I'll bet you didn't even see the animal you ran over.  It's different when you are on foot, or in my case, on a bike, the results are all too - graphically - apparent. There's the dead body, protective shell crushed, guts exposed, the smear of blood like a crime scene, telling a story of a violent end of life.  On my short journey between McMaster and the Urquhart Butterfly Garden I encountered 2 dead turtles crushed on Olympic Drive, and one snake, splattered at McMaster parking access. If you missed it, I've got the photographic evidence here for you.  It's no secret that Cootes and Olympic Drive, and McMaster parking, are all built in and through a biodiverse area, much of which is protected as a nature sanctuary. The presence of vehicles slicing through the middle of the natur...

Every so often I shoot some video to illustrate events going on in our area of interest, geographically speaking, in and around Cootes Paradise. A series of (currently nine) short videos touching on changes in McMaster parking lot M, turtles crossing Cootes Drive, Spencer Creek Trail, and McMaster artists contributions to the cause, are all in the playlist on my Youtube channel. I hope you can check some of them out, and if you have any questions or advice I'd love to hear from you! Randy

Watching the flashing "Turtle Crossing" warning signs on Cootes, I remain skeptical about the effect on traffic speed. The only thing I've seen that actually slowed traffic along here was when the lanes are reduced to half capacity, and moved to one side of the centre median (see video). This temporary road engineering creates conditions that strongly discourage speeding, and I think it would be a much-needed safety improvement on the regular divided highway layout. Such a roard treatement would also have the added benefit - if we truly want to help turtles survive - of decreasing the crossing distance for wildlife by well over half the current road width. The best solution likely remains temporary road closures during turtle nesting times, as the city of Burlington does for Jefferson Salamanders on King Road. As long as the closure is well advertised in advance, drivers could adjust their trips accordingly. We will watch to see what emerges as an effe...

It's not like they have a chance, being short, slow and focused on laying their eggs in sandy soil. Not when there's a 4 lane, 80 km/h divided highway cutting through the place where they live. At 80 or 90km/h will you have time to notice the turtle, then take evasive action? Will the person in the car behind you have time?  We need to do more to protect turtles and other at risk species from getting totally wiped out in our corner of the world. More on this subject to come.

Hamilton Spectator By Randy Kay Tucked into the gravel sandbar known as Burlington Heights, in a small family plot, the bones of T.B. McQuesten are laid. It's a fitting resting place for a man who could claim the distinctive geography of the Heights as one of his life's canvases. McQuesten family plot, Hamilton Cemetery Photo by RK. When the earth opened to receive him in 1948, the Hamilton Cemetery overlooked the peaceful Chedoke River Valley with Princess Point an easy landmark. Further along York Boulevard stand monuments to his time on earth: the signature high level bridge over the canal, the Royal Botanical Gardens' Rock Garden, or across York Boulevard from the cemetery a restored Dundurn Castle. The marrow of McQuesten's contributions to the city are in each of these places. His days on the influential city parks board spanned almost three decades until his death, the lasting results found in natural spaces and parks like Gage Park, Kings Forest, the ...

RBG asks city to help protect Cootes turtles Hamilton Spectator By Matthew Van Dongen The city is being asked to cut speed limits and erect wildlife fences to help save rare turtles from death-by-motorist along Cootes Drive and Olympic Drive. The Royal Botanical Gardens has spent five years working on a recovery plan for turtles around Cootes Paradise and area marshes. An estimated 1,500 turtles remain there. Dozens have been killed along Cootes Drive and Olympic Drive over the last several years, according to a map presented by RBG natural lands head Tys Theysmeyer at the public works committee Tuesday. The city can help head off those deaths, he said, by reducing the speed limit along Cootes Drive to 60 km/h from 80 and setting up wildlife fences to "redirect" turtles intent on heading from the marsh to high ground to nest. "We think it would make a significant difference," Theysmeyer said after the meeting. "Slowing down at least gives you (the motoris...

This article appeared in the Hamilton Spectator today (April 10, 2014) - from our own headline (above) I want to ensure it is clear we support the RBG fence as a temporary fix for a long-term problem. We need to protect vulnerable species from extirpation, due in large part to road kill. But a better solution is to be found at the core of  Restore Cootes' vision. More on that soon.  - rk RBG wants permanent fence to protect trekking turtles TURTLE Ron Pozzer,Spectator file A Blandings turtle seen in 2004. New efforts are underway to protect turtles along Cootes Drive. By    Mark McNeil The Royal Botanical Gardens and the Hamilton Conservation Authority Foundation are ramping up efforts to prevent a fragile population of turtles and other wildlife from getting run over by vehicles on Cootes Drive. The RBG wants to build a permanent fence, three-quarters of a kilometre long, that is expected to cost more than $30,000, on the east side of the r...

Well well, those amazing McMaster Arts and Science students are certainly giving Cootes Paradise a look in a way that Restore Cootes appreciates. From Lot M' s 30m buffer, transportation demand management for McMaster, McMarsh, McMaster Forest and yes, even Cootes Drive, they're all here (and more) in this online presentation: http://prezi.com/h0uam4f60rjb/artsci-4cg3-2013-research-posters/ It is great to have the support of McMaster students and professors as these real-life local issues take on a new life. Thanks to OPIRG McMaster as well for supporting the project.

Somethings all Restore Cootes supporters should know: "Cootes Drive is especially dangerous [for wildlife] because the roadway is between two wetland areas." "This area has been identified as a high mortality area," she said." "So far this year, 14 adults [snapping turtles] were killed trying to cross the road." The historical context that placed Cootes Drive in the middle of an environmentally sensitive biodiversity hotspot in 1936-37 can be seen in retrospect as a huge mistake, and one that the marsh inhabitants pay for daily with their lives. The road certainly wasn't needed in '37, and it probably isn't really needed today: Restore Cootes wants you to think of life without Cootes Drive: it becomes a trade off of a couple minutes extra driving for cars and trucks in exchange for protecting endangered species and rehabilitating one of the most important marsh habitats on Lake Ontario. Here's the full text from the Hami...

"Cootes Drive, by the way, has got to be the most unnecessary strip of asphalt in the whole city and that's saying something." http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/archive/index.php/t-142753.html

Here is a central historical work that relates to our Restore Cootes' philosophy, in a new easy to read format. Our hope is that if we understand how Cootes Drive came to be, we can question the rationale, and look to ameliorate the current negative impacts of an overbuilt road through a major wetland. The future issue may boil down to Trucks? or Turtles? Cars? or Cootes Paradise?

King Road area subject to annual temporary closure Burlington, Ontario has taken action to protect the Jefferson Salamander population for the past few years. King Road will be blocked off with portable barricades and concrete barricades from the escarpment to Mountain Brow Road between March 18 to April 8, 2013. This is a city initiative to ensure the survival of this endangered species, since their breeding habitat is divided by the road. Road kill is a significant threat to the survival of the estimated 100 Jefferson Salamanders, according to Conservation Halton. Cootes Drive, built on a marsh The cost to close the road is marginal - estimated at $1500.00. Now might be a good time to talk about the threatened species in Cootes Paradise, and ways to protect them from the road-kill fate on Cootes Drive between McMaster and Dundas. [source: Hamilton Spectator, March 12, 2013)

A 1931 aerial view of Binkley Hollow (to the left of image) and McMaster University, newly located to Hamilton from Toronto (to the right of image) - the long line that starts at the bottom of the image in the centre and curves off to the left at the top is the Hamilton and Dundas Railway that served commuters between these distinct places from 1879 until 1923, and then served the T.H. & B. railway as a freight line until 1987. Part of the railway is now a section of the paved multi-use path beside Cootes Drive. In a few years (1936) construction of highway 8D (the Dundas Diversion) would begin on a a four lane divided highway between Hamilton and Dundas, a distance of "two-and-a-half miles".  What we now know as Cootes Drive was a project of the Provincial Highways Department under the tutelage of the Hon. Thomas B. McQuesten, the Hamilton politician who was Minister of Highways. Interestingly, the road was deemed unnecessary by politicians in Dundas, but si...