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What 30 metres looks like


View McMaster 30 M buffer between parking and creek in a larger map


This map illustrates a very rough outline of how much space a 30m buffer would look require, though more accurate measurements have been taken by OPIRG McMaster on the ground since this map was created in 2008.


The 30m naturalized buffer is to undo the damage to the creekside riparian zone when parking lots were built over a wetland. Restore Cootes has been trying to get McMaster University to act on the 30m buffer since discovering that the buffer is included in the Campus Master Plan. 


The long Westaway Road that extends along the southern edge of parking to the western edge of Lot M needs to be considered as well for restoration. Cold spring-water bubbles to the surface on the slope just south of the roadway, and has been contained by culverts and pipes to prevent the formation of creeks that existed in the 1960s. The creeks were of course in the way of the parking lots being constructed in the late 1960 and early 1970s.

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