In HRM’s vanishing wildlands, excavators rumble relentlessly
across scarred landscapes. The destruction of natural habitat in and
around HRM’s sprawling suburbs is so routine it’s rarely even
newsworthy. Yet once in a blue moon, a determined citizen can make a
big difference. On the weekend of June 6, Sackville resident Marilyn
Challis spotted one of the yellow-black excavators filling in part of a
wetland. The wetland was wedged between the busy controlled-access
highway known as Duke Street and a burgeoning big-box shopping complex
that houses the Bedford Walmart. Challis called a 1-800 number at the
Nova Scotia environment department and emailed local politicians. She
pointed out that the wetland is home to heron, egret and a rare frog
species. On Monday, June 8, HRM issued a stop-work order halting the
excavator in its tracks and sending municipal planners and the
developer to the negotiating table. It was a round one victory for
Marilyn Challis.
In his book The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler
argues that destruction is at the heart of suburban development. Our
environmental laws even provide for it. In the case of the Duke Street
wetland, developer Besim Halef received permission from the province to
fill in half an acre of wetland, part of the site for a 140-room
Holiday Inn. A spokesperson for the provincial environment department
says Halef agreed to pay $17,000 to the Nova Scotia Environmental Trust
Fund, which finances environmental research, management and
conservation. The developer was also required to install barriers to
prevent silt from entering the other half of the wetland.
But Bedford has a unique set of restrictions governing construction
near water. When he started construction last month with provincial
permission, Halef himself says he didn’t know about the municipality’s
rules. Challis’s complaints and the HRM stop-work order forced him to
rethink his project. He says he’s hoping to reach a deal next week with
city officials that will lead to the restoration of the damaged wetland
and the relocation of the hotel. If that happens, it’s a rare case of
citizen complaints, political lobbying and the sensitivity of a
developer combining to save natural habitat in an area where the
destruction of nature is an everyday occurrence. The new hotel itself
is on the edge of the Bedford Commons, with its big-box stores and many
acres of parking convenient for seven-day-a-week car-borne shoppers.
Although the wetland seems to have been saved, rising suburban land
values, rampant consumerism and the shortsightedness of politicians
have inevitably led to the paving of vast tracts of countryside for
highways, malls, parking lots—and housing.
In HRM for example, thousands of McMansions are being thrown up
every year on lots newly carved out of the woods. The big cutting
machines take less than two minutes to saw off, strip and stack an
80-year-old tree. Then come the excavators, dump trucks and dozers,
followed at last by families in their shiny SUVs. These days HRM
routinely allows developers to build three-bathroom homes without
access to municipal water or sewage services. In many suburban areas,
such as Fall River and Beaver Bank, there are chronic water shortages
as wells run dry and angry residents demand relief.
“What’s happening is that there’s no organized plan,” says Walter
Regan of the Sackville Rivers Association. “Just one subdivision after
another.” Regan predicts large chunks of HRM will end up looking like
Mississauga. “We’re destroying brooks and streams, cutting down trees
and infilling wetlands,” he says. “I have yet to see any signs of it
slowing down.”
James Howard Kunstler argues the whole suburban economy will
collapse when oil supplies peak and energy prices shoot skyward. In his
book The Long Emergency, Kunstler predicts that many suburban
subdivisions will become the slums of the future. That’s the bleak
long-term view. In the short term, citizens of Bedford/Sackville can
celebrate a victory. Looks like the rare frogs in the Walmart bog have
been saved, thanks to Marilyn Challis!
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.
It’s such a shame, people often move here because the HRM is unlike surburban Ontario…
Congratulations and thanks to Marilyn Challis for fighting for and succeeding in the protection of the wetland in the Bedford Commons. The wetland lies just next door to the Sackville River Watershed and the Sackville Rivers Association (SRA) followed the story with interest. It is truly amazing what one person can do when we decide to become involved.
The mandate of the SRA is to protect the Sackville River and its watershed of over 147 square kilometers. We as well often find that the environment is treated as a secondary item, if it is considered at all.
Currently there are a number of large development projects being planned within critical areas of the watershed (13 small and large sub-divisions are now on the books for development, one of over 1,600 acres and another of 1000 acres).
It is difficult to see how such development can be considered sustainable. Our goal is not to stifle economic development or to micromanage the actions of those who may want to build a home, but simply to push for methods of development that will take the environment into proper consideration. We ask ourselves and others: where is the Master Plan for Development on the Watershed? What about the accumulated effect on the watershed? What is sustainable development for our watershed and the over 1000 other watersheds province-wide?
It is time that subdivision construction must undergo an Environmental Assessment, just like a large mine, road construction project or utility corridor. Just how many golf courses, 30,000 person sub-divisions can one watershed handle until it is just one large watershed of small houses, roads and malls? Where is Sawmill River in Dartmouth, or Freshwater Brook in Halifax?
As the SRA continues to move ahead with its mandate, we will need and depend on the government to protect the environment and the public. It is nice to know as Marilyn has shown that, whereas government bodies are rarely proactive in nature, they can at least be responsive to the actions of concerned citizens who speak up. That is why we must vote and become involved – if we don’t who will, just how many Marilyn’s are out there?
The SRA uses the Atlantic Salmon as a biological indicator of watershed health, and it may surprise some to know that there are still Atlantic Salmon traversing the waters of Halifax Harbour and the Sackville River. Each morning, we check the fishway counter and usually, stubbornly, against great odds, there will be a salmon there waiting to continue its journey upstream. Perhaps there is a lesson or two that we can learn from their determination as we try to make sustainable development a reality for our watersheds in Nova Scotia!
Walter N. Regan
President
Sackville River Association