denfromoakvillemilton
Senior Member
rest in peace
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- Thread starter wyliepoon
- Start date
nfitz
Superstar
I can't wait to hear @MarkBrooks take on this. Though he's been pretty quiet of late. Perhaps his contract ended.
Mihairokov
Active Member
rip YYP we hardly knew ye
ericmacm
Active Member
Southern Ontario has a dearth of proper National Parks so this is really nice to see. As other posters have mentioned, this has potential to be a really incredible contiguous naturalized area if the province continues to move forward with the Uxbridge Urban Provincial Park, which itself could be consolidated into Rouge Urban National Park.
Hopefully we see steps gradually taken to reforest/rewild these areas, including ending agricultural leases and closing off roads over time. I know this is technically prime agricultural land, but naturalized land in an urban area as big as the GTA provides a different kind of value.
Hopefully we see steps gradually taken to reforest/rewild these areas, including ending agricultural leases and closing off roads over time. I know this is technically prime agricultural land, but naturalized land in an urban area as big as the GTA provides a different kind of value.
Northern Light
Superstar
Agreed.
Just Rouge Park, with this expansion, and the maximum vision for Uxbridge (thus far) are about 13,000ha or 32,000ac and change.
A fully realized vision that added some additional lands within the existing agricultural preserve, a fulsome corridor between the two spaces, and a modest north-westerly expansion along the main Rouge River to just north of Steeles could see an area of ~250km2 / 25,000ha/ 62,000ac assembled.
That's probably fantasy.........but hey......we're just over 1/2 way, why stop now?
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Northern Light
Superstar
Oh, since the Uxbridge Park was recently out for consultation on the management plan, let me borrow some imagery. This shows Rouge w/o today's expansion, and it shows the minimum vision for Uxbridge (what's already been regulated as provincial park, and which will, at least, triple in size.)
The image below is a heat map for connectivity of nature. Brighter colours Red/Orange represent the best quality spaces, while dark blue represents spaces with minimal, and isolated habitat.
This Rouge Park with today's expansion showing in light green (from the Wildlands League)
This map shows the TRCA holdings set to be added to Uxbridge Provincial Park:
Outlined in white below, very crudely is the new Rouge Park boundary:
The image below is a heat map for connectivity of nature. Brighter colours Red/Orange represent the best quality spaces, while dark blue represents spaces with minimal, and isolated habitat.
This Rouge Park with today's expansion showing in light green (from the Wildlands League)
This map shows the TRCA holdings set to be added to Uxbridge Provincial Park:
Outlined in white below, very crudely is the new Rouge Park boundary:
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micheal_can
Senior Member
Great news! Pickering Lands to be turned into permanent park/ protected space. Don’t have access to article but you can get the gist.
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Breaking News - Headlines & Top Stories | The Star
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With the continued growth of urban areas,I could see the red area being farmland, while the rest over time is rewided. I doubt the entire area will ever not be farmland. This is good news for the area, and bad news for anyone thinking that an airport would be built here.
kEiThZ
Superstar
He'll be lobbying the next government to reverse this. I don't this is by any means a done deal. But killing for now improves chances for HSR.
nfitz
Superstar
It either is, or it isn't. And (at least much of it) is.
How would you deal with the provincial policy statement? Ministers zoning order?
How does it improve chances for HSR? By removing not only the airport, but the opportunity for large-scale residential development, you reduce demand for upgrading that corridor.
kEiThZ
Superstar
The airport would have added flights to Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City, further diluting demand for HxR.
micheal_can
Senior Member
Another way to look at it is right now, HSR would be sustainable between Toronto and the rest of the QC-W corridor.If another major airport were to open and if a low cost carrier were to open there, it could make the cost difference not as much a factor and the people who would have taking the HSR train would not. Remember,for flying,most people do not think of the time it takes to get from the entrance, through security, and the time waiting. Once that is factored in, HSR becomes as fast as flying for most of the QC-W Corridor.
just east of the creek
Senior Member
Wow! Even from some distance away, this is great news. A far better outcome then has been proposed by the Mirabel group.
If i could add a couple of comments, they would be as follows.
- please, please make sure the new park(s) are properly funded. Not like the provincial urban park in Halton Region that has to compete for any $'s with every other park in Ontario and has repeatedly passed on opportunities to expand incrementally up and down the river as well as along its existing borders. Currently this park is a multitude of missed opportunities.
- Is it time to create, to build on what exists now, and to unify existing trail networks to create a 'long distance' hiking trail extending into the Moraine (and beyond), much like the Bruce Trail/
- I am very sympathetic to the idea or rewilding portions of this park area in various forms, However this area is also an area of superlative farmland within an expanding urban base - Toronto to the west and all of those townhouse suburbs to the east. Agriculture can exist within a framework of parklands or farming trust lands. With all the discussion of 'farm to table", of buying local, of not trucking farm produced products hundreds (thousands) of km, here is a unique opportunity. Targeted farming, be it market garden, cereal crops, beef, chicken, pork, lamb etc, within a targeted framework of farming trusts, within a framework of integrating into the surrounding parkland, of continual conditioning of the land, of sustainable practices, and of supplying the neighbouring GTA with food. This would be a chance to be innovative with ag on various scales and sustain a landscape that would provide for the GTA on several levels - some being education, food and recreation. I do not farm in Pickering, and this would all require some further work, but it would be very interesting and creative to explore.
- Deep sixing Mirabel II should provide further impetus to higher speed, higher frequency VIA services (of one form or another) as well as GO and other regional services that will connect with the Pearson Airport Hub or with connections to that hub and make it faster and easier to access Pearson. The idea is there, we just need the skeleton to get going.
All in all this is great news, even if an election is justifying the announcement.
If i could add a couple of comments, they would be as follows.
- please, please make sure the new park(s) are properly funded. Not like the provincial urban park in Halton Region that has to compete for any $'s with every other park in Ontario and has repeatedly passed on opportunities to expand incrementally up and down the river as well as along its existing borders. Currently this park is a multitude of missed opportunities.
- Is it time to create, to build on what exists now, and to unify existing trail networks to create a 'long distance' hiking trail extending into the Moraine (and beyond), much like the Bruce Trail/
- I am very sympathetic to the idea or rewilding portions of this park area in various forms, However this area is also an area of superlative farmland within an expanding urban base - Toronto to the west and all of those townhouse suburbs to the east. Agriculture can exist within a framework of parklands or farming trust lands. With all the discussion of 'farm to table", of buying local, of not trucking farm produced products hundreds (thousands) of km, here is a unique opportunity. Targeted farming, be it market garden, cereal crops, beef, chicken, pork, lamb etc, within a targeted framework of farming trusts, within a framework of integrating into the surrounding parkland, of continual conditioning of the land, of sustainable practices, and of supplying the neighbouring GTA with food. This would be a chance to be innovative with ag on various scales and sustain a landscape that would provide for the GTA on several levels - some being education, food and recreation. I do not farm in Pickering, and this would all require some further work, but it would be very interesting and creative to explore.
- Deep sixing Mirabel II should provide further impetus to higher speed, higher frequency VIA services (of one form or another) as well as GO and other regional services that will connect with the Pearson Airport Hub or with connections to that hub and make it faster and easier to access Pearson. The idea is there, we just need the skeleton to get going.
All in all this is great news, even if an election is justifying the announcement.
ericmacm
Active Member
Just because land is designated as Prime Agricultural doesn’t mean that it explicitly has to be used for farming. The way the law defines “Prime Agricultural Land” is any land with Canada Land Inventory classifications from 1-3 (no limitations to moderately severe limitations) or areas that farm specialty crops. However, you will see that across Ontario, as well as much of the rest of the country, that plenty of naturalized areas are located on land that could be designated as Prime Agricultural.
Think of naturalized land as the default land use across the country and every other developed land use as gradually more intensive on a spectrum. Prime Agricultural designation basically protects these areas from development of anything more intensive than farming (with some limited exceptions that demand separations/buffer zones). Prime Agricultural is also allowed to be zoned up to residential/commercial if part of a municipality’s approved urban boundary and/or settlement area expansion. There are no restrictions on deciding to stop farming on your lot and letting the land go back to a forested state.
There are no obstacles (other than money and time) to letting land that is currently farmed go back to a naturalized state. Parks Canada owns the land now and they can let it all go back to forest if they want to. Keeping current agricultural leases brings in income which can help fund park activities and rewilding efforts, so I would expect it to be a very gradual/slow effort.
6ixGod
Active Member
Better a park than Mirabel 2.0.
Deers, foxes and beavers oh my.
Deers, foxes and beavers oh my.
6ixGod
Active Member
I think Pearson has more than enough room to expand and cater to the future growth of air travel in the region. But if the GTHA did ever need a relief airport, there’s always Hamilton and Bishop (assuming the runways get extended).
But if they’re looking for something in the east, the only other airfield that could be expanded is Peterborough at this point. Plenty of room to expand and located in a convenient location already. The distance is definitely an issue, but if they were ever pressed on needing another airport for the eastern GTHA then this is the only location.
But if they’re looking for something in the east, the only other airfield that could be expanded is Peterborough at this point. Plenty of room to expand and located in a convenient location already. The distance is definitely an issue, but if they were ever pressed on needing another airport for the eastern GTHA then this is the only location.