A Beautiful Proposal: National Park Status Sought For Rouge Valley
April 11th, 2009 Categories: News Wire, Photographs, Wonderful News
Once or twice a year I find myself cycling through Rouge Park. And as difficult as it is (at least for me!) to climb north on Sewells Rd., I’ve always loved that stretch of the ride. The one-lane Sewells Road Bridge, a suspension bridge built in 1912 and designated a Toronto heritage property, a little further north the remnants of another old bridge (maybe a train trestle), the winding road itself, it’s just beautiful. So beautiful it makes you forget you’re still in Toronto. In a country versus urban sorta way.
In my Wonderful News category, a coalition of politicians and environmentalists are seeking national park status for the Rouge Valley. The proposed Rouge Valley National Park would stretch from Lake Ontario to the Oak Ridges Moraine, covering parts of York and Durham Regions, and a northeast corner of Toronto, along the Rouge River and its tributaries.
Lots of benefits would flow from this national park designation: it would be recognized as an ecologically-sensitive area, it would be near impossible for the land (approximately 16,000 hectares) to be sold for development purposes (read: no big box stores and dense housing projects) and federal agencies would be in a far better position than the municipalities to protect the park from illegal poaching and dumping. As it stands now, the dumping is a disgrace; it’s so disturbing to see the mess that some people create.
The proposal has been discussed with Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance and Minister Responsible for the GTA, as well as Jim Prentice, Minister of the Environment. No commitments to date; hopefully they will be inspired by the idea of a national park in the midst of our City.
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Nice post…I spent my young adult life cycling that very same route.
Gus,
I’m glad you liked the article.