Greenwich National Park - action alert

Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 00:54:12
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Sharon Labchuk <slabchuk@isn.net>
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Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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(petitions to copy and circulate available on-line in a day or two)
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Greenwich National Park Death Sentence

by Sharon Labchuk, Earth Action

	When the dunes at Greenwich were declared a national park last year, most
people figured this relatively unspoiled natural area would finally be safe
from lowlife developers.  They were forgetting one thing though -  lowlife
politicians.  Lawrence MacAulay, Canada's solicitor general and Liberal MP
for the Greenwich area, has one thing on his mind - re-election.  And he's
not going to let anything like rare plants or the endangered piping plover
get in his way.  Not one for modesty, he's bragged publicly about his major
role in "convincing" Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps to
designate this fragile ecosystem a national park.  He further consolidated
his political position in his economically depressed riding by announcing a
federal $1.3 million ‘development plan' for the park.  The development will
help attract more than 100,000 tourists this summer to trample this unique
ecosystem to death.  Even more tourists are expected in succeeding years as
the park becomes more developed and better advertised.
	MacAulay spouts the usual political rhetoric about "respecting and
honouring the fragility and integrity of this beautiful place" but the man
hasn't the slightest environmental sensibility.   Out of the other side of
his mouth he calls Greenwich, an area Parks Canada says has natural
features not found anywhere else in the world,  a ‘project' and a
‘resource'.  
	"This project is an excellent example of how federal investment will lead
to social and economic opportunities," he says.  Parks Canada on PEI,
charged with protecting Greenwich, seems equally ignorant of the critical
need for ecosystem protection over economic and recreational opportunities
for humans.
	Last fall Dave Lipton, Parks Canada's head bureaucrat on PEI, directed the
construction of  a trail through sensitive sand dunes and over top of 4
recognized archeological sites without first conducting an environmental
screening, clearly contravening the province's Archeological Sites
Protection Act and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency regulations.
The trail was hurriedly built and the screening process ignored in order to
access federal government funding that would not have been available later.
 Guess which federal politician would have greased the wheels for this
money?  The trail construction created about 12 short-term jobs and got
MacAulay about 12 votes. 
	A walk on the trail reveals the damage caused by hasty planning and lack
of expert advice.  Built as close to the bank's edge as possible,  parts of
the trail are already collapsing over the side and onto the beach below.
Pottery shards, brought to the surface during trail excavation, are clearly
visible in the archeological sites.  Pesticide-soaked lumber, used for the
boardwalk section, now leaches its toxic load onto the sand dunes.
	The problem with Parks Canada on PEI is that there is no ecologist on
staff, so MacAulay's economic development schemes for the area have been
allowed to dominate. And while a biological survey of Greenwich has been
contracted out by Parks Canada, it's nothing more than lip service.  The
survey cannot be completed in time to influence  scheduled major
development this spring.  Besides harm already caused by trail
construction, Parks Canada has cut a 10 foot wide swath through the
forested edges of the park, claiming this is standard procedure in all
national parks.  The swath will be kept denuded for all time to delineate
park boundaries.
	Three separate parcels of land, with privately owned property between,
make up the tiny park on the Greenwich Peninsula.  Development plans for
the smallest parcel, which is not much more than a strip of dunes along the
shore and a bit of field, include an access road for beach goers and a
parking lot for 90 cars and 10 buses "with room for expansion."  Tourists
frolicking on this beach will find all the amenities here - toilets,
showers, hot dog stands, the works.  
	Spectacular dunes on the largest and most sensitive parcel of land will be
in full view of the hordes sunning on the beach. This land, previously only
accessible by a long tiring hike up and down sand dunes, will soon be easy
to reach by simply driving up the proposed access road and strolling along
the beach.  Besides facilitating access from a public beach, Parks Canada
intends to penetrate this area with boardwalks. There's even a bizarre plan
to allow recreational fishing boats on the little pond situated in the
midst of this massive dune system. 
	 On most fine summer days, one would be lucky to encounter a half-dozen
people in this dramatic and biologically diverse natural area, although all
terrain vehicles were a problem.  Now that the federal government is
protecting it, throngs of unrestricted and unsupervised tourists will be
given free rein to go anywhere in the park, for Parks Canada has no plan in
place to make people stay on the boardwalks.  We know from the sorry mess
at the national park in Cavendish that, free to roam,  it's impossible to
keep people from climbing and destroying fragile dunes.
	A ‘special planning area' outside park boundaries has been established by
the Province. Yet-to-be-determined development in this zone will sever the
park ecosystem from the surrounding countryside, creating an ‘island of
doom' unable to maintain biological integrity in the long run. Already
developer George Dierks, who owns 400 acres near the park, is planning a
four star hotel and golf course complex.
		MacAulay and others see Greenwich as a cash cow to be milked for all it's
worth.  But others are horrified that one of  PEI's scarce natural areas
has been reduced to a commodity and will soon swarm with tourists. 
	 According to the most basic ecological criteria, the planet is
overpopulated today with 6 billion humans, and our population may double in
the next century before it levels out.  Highly regarded conservation
biologists say at least 50% of the Earth must remain wild, free from human
interference, to protect  biodiversity and avoid mass extinctions.  These
wild areas, they say, must be big, really big, to allow other species the
space they need to survive and evolve.  And they must be interconnected
with corridors and surrounded by buffer zones where only limited human
activity is permitted.  Corridors are necessary to allow for  genetic
exchange between populations and for habitat needs of wide-ranging species. 
	 Present human interference with the natural world is excessive and the
situation is rapidly worsening. An estimated 150 species per day are
eliminated by human activity.  Many species of  plants and animals, once
teeming in Atlantic Canada, have had their populations decimated and are
confined to ever-shrinking pockets of wilderness to make room for humans.
PEI has the most intensively ‘managed' landscape of all provinces and
various native animals, like bear, lynx, pine martin and woodland caribou
have long since disappeared because of hunting, trapping and forest
destruction. Are we not generous enough to leave wild places on this island
to accommodate the needs of other species?
	We urgently need to rewild large sections of  PEI, not only because humans
are part of  Nature and we ultimately depend upon its integrity and health
for our survival.  But because humans have no right to reduce the diversity
of life on Earth except to satisfy vital needs, and because other species
have the right to exist irrespective of their usefulness to humans.
	Let Greenwich signal a new appreciation for Nature conservation on PEI.
Human intrusion into this national park needs to be limited to scientific
study and strictly controlled guided tours to only the least sensitive
areas.  The Island has miles of shoreline already servicing the
recreational needs of tourists.  Leave the Greenwich dunes to the
endangered piping plovers and other wild things.



ACTION ALERT: If you care about conserving wildlands, and if the biological
meltdown now in progress brings you to tears, infuriates you, or otherwise
makes you feel like taking action, now's the time to act.  Help defend
Greenwich from development. When Greenwich National Park  officially opens
in July 1999 development  will be well underway.  Contact Earth Action to
find out how you can help.  At the very least, write a letter to Sheila
Copps and copy it to the people below.  Postage is free to the House of
Commons. Letters to the editor are effective.

Sheila Copps
Minister of Canadian Heritage
House of Commons, Ottawa
Fax: 819-994-5987
coppss@parl.gc.ca

Hon. Mark Muise
Progressive Conservative Party
House of Commons, Ottawa
Fax: 613-996-9857
muisem@parl.gc.ca

Hon. Rick Laliberte
NDP
House of Commons, Ottawa
Fax: 613-995-7697
lalibr@parl.gc.ca

Hon. Inky Mark
Reform Party
House of Comons, Ottawa
Fax: 613-992-0930
marki@parl.gc.ca

Hon. Suazanne Tremblay
Bloc Quebecois
House of Commons, Ottawa
Fax: 613-996-8298
trembs@parl.gc.ca

Joe O'Brien
Director General for Eastern Canada
Parks Canada
1869 Upper Water St
Halifax, NS B3J 159
Fax: 902-426-1378
joe_obrien@pch.gc.ca

Your Member of Parliament
House of Commons, Ottawa

Earth Action 
81 Prince St
Charlottetown, PEI  C1A 4R3
Fax: 902-621-0719
slabchuk@isn.net





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