Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
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Site at harbour's east end will be green refuge for migratory birds
By Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 9, 2007)
It may never be a quiet haven, but 14 hectares of barren ground between the Queen Elizabeth Way and Windermere Basin at the east end of Hamilton Harbour will gradually become a green refuge for migratory birds and other wildlife.
The land, created by the former Board of Hamilton Harbour Commissioners when it last dredged the basin, was deeded to the city almost seven years ago and has since served mainly as a seagull nesting site.
With $1.25 million in federal and provincial Superbuild money, the Hamilton Waterfront Trust has covered the contaminated fill with topsoil, carved it into a rolling terrain and planted 7,000 trees and shrubs and lots of grass.
A 14-car parking lot off Eastport Drive just south of a huge Steelcare warehouse is locked until the Ontario Environment Ministry approves public use of the site -- something the trust's Werner Plessl expects to happen soon. After that, it will be open for passive use by naturalists and other walkers.
The plantings are still just bare sticks in a dry, windswept landscape with tinges of green where the grass is starting to sprout. A 1.4-kilometre, rough gravel trail circles the site and leads to the basin shore.
Gazing across, you have a panoramic, back-door view of the Burlington Street industrial area, with graders and trucks working on the sandy mini-mountains at Lafarge slag on your left and Provmar's permanently docked fuel storage ship on the right.
In between are the blue-painted buildings of Mittal Steel and the Poscor yards on Strathearne Avenue where claws on long hydraulic arms lift and move bundles of wire and other metal scrap.
The raucous cries of gulls dominate, but the trust expects the newly planted grass will also attract Canada geese, so Collies on Patrol is on standby to chase the unwanted birds with dogs until the grass grows tall enough to keep them away.
Plessl says, "A number of wet areas were left for birds migrating through this area. We've included reeds and marsh plants and left bird boxes being used by the Canadian Wildlife Service for songbird studies.
"We will also install interpretive signs about the harbour and the basin at the outlet of Red Hill Creek."
The basin captures silt washing down the creek, keeping it out of shipping channels in the harbour, but the amount is expected to drop now that the creek has been rebuilt as part of the Red Hill Valley Parkway project.
The city plans to turn most of the open water into a marsh that will help filter the water, leaving a smaller basin to be dredged periodically, with the dredged material left to dry before being trucked away.
emcguinness@thespec.com
905-526-4650
Photo#1- Ron Albertson, the Hamilton Spectator
An employee with a wildlife control company ensures that gulls do not colonize this new park site under construction at the east end of Windermere Basin, the way the birds have obviously done across the pond.
Photos#2 & 3- Forum Photos
__________________________________________________
Site at harbour's east end will be green refuge for migratory birds
By Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 9, 2007)
It may never be a quiet haven, but 14 hectares of barren ground between the Queen Elizabeth Way and Windermere Basin at the east end of Hamilton Harbour will gradually become a green refuge for migratory birds and other wildlife.
The land, created by the former Board of Hamilton Harbour Commissioners when it last dredged the basin, was deeded to the city almost seven years ago and has since served mainly as a seagull nesting site.
With $1.25 million in federal and provincial Superbuild money, the Hamilton Waterfront Trust has covered the contaminated fill with topsoil, carved it into a rolling terrain and planted 7,000 trees and shrubs and lots of grass.
A 14-car parking lot off Eastport Drive just south of a huge Steelcare warehouse is locked until the Ontario Environment Ministry approves public use of the site -- something the trust's Werner Plessl expects to happen soon. After that, it will be open for passive use by naturalists and other walkers.
The plantings are still just bare sticks in a dry, windswept landscape with tinges of green where the grass is starting to sprout. A 1.4-kilometre, rough gravel trail circles the site and leads to the basin shore.
Gazing across, you have a panoramic, back-door view of the Burlington Street industrial area, with graders and trucks working on the sandy mini-mountains at Lafarge slag on your left and Provmar's permanently docked fuel storage ship on the right.
In between are the blue-painted buildings of Mittal Steel and the Poscor yards on Strathearne Avenue where claws on long hydraulic arms lift and move bundles of wire and other metal scrap.
The raucous cries of gulls dominate, but the trust expects the newly planted grass will also attract Canada geese, so Collies on Patrol is on standby to chase the unwanted birds with dogs until the grass grows tall enough to keep them away.
Plessl says, "A number of wet areas were left for birds migrating through this area. We've included reeds and marsh plants and left bird boxes being used by the Canadian Wildlife Service for songbird studies.
"We will also install interpretive signs about the harbour and the basin at the outlet of Red Hill Creek."
The basin captures silt washing down the creek, keeping it out of shipping channels in the harbour, but the amount is expected to drop now that the creek has been rebuilt as part of the Red Hill Valley Parkway project.
The city plans to turn most of the open water into a marsh that will help filter the water, leaving a smaller basin to be dredged periodically, with the dredged material left to dry before being trucked away.
emcguinness@thespec.com
905-526-4650
Photo#1- Ron Albertson, the Hamilton Spectator
An employee with a wildlife control company ensures that gulls do not colonize this new park site under construction at the east end of Windermere Basin, the way the birds have obviously done across the pond.
Photos#2 & 3- Forum Photos
