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Canadian Environment Awards
The Community Awards 2008
Restoration & Rehabilitation
• Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation and the Town of Coaldale, Alberta
• Comité ZIP Jacques-Cartier
• Gerard Nellestijn
ALBERTA BIRDS OF PREY FOUNDATION AND THE TOWN OF COALDALE, ALBERTA
Community raptor rehabilitation and education centre
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| PHOTO: ALBERTA BIRDS OF PREY FOUNDATION |
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Faced with a crisis in storm-water management in the late 1980s,
the townspeople of Coaldale, Alta., found a remedy that defended
their neighbourhoods against seasonal flooding and tapped into
a well of support for conservation. The solution: the Alberta Birds
of Prey Nature Centre, an education centre, wildlife rescue facility
and treasured oasis of wetland habitat that is the pride of this
town of 6,200.
In Alberta, municipalities are responsible for
handling the runoff from spring snowmelt and precipitation. “The typical
solution is to dig a pit and funnel water into it,” says project
founder Colin Weir. “I knew if we built the drainage area
correctly, it could be multi-functional, serving the community’s
needs and wildlife too.”
Weir arrived in Coaldale in 1982
as a newly minted business grad with a long-standing interest in
avian rescue, the result of childhood visits to southern Ontario’s
Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary and Point Pelee National Park. On a shoestring
budget, he and co-founder Wendy Slaytor established the Alberta
Birds of Prey Foundation and began rescuing hundreds of injured
birds. “I have always had a passion for raptors,” says
Weir. “When I was young, little was known about these birds — they
were considered obscure.”
The raptor champion had bigger dreams
than his backyard operation. In 1988, he approached the town council
with a proposal and an engineer’s report. The plan showed
how a series of storm-retention ponds could be built in an outlying
sterile field, with high banks and a meandering shoreline
to allow water to rise without flooding. The vision included landscape
naturalization and nesting islands to attract birds, a rescue centre
and a wildlife viewing area, which would serve as an outdooreducation
space, a park and a picnic area for visitors.
Despite early skepticism,
the council signed on, and the site, including a modest structure,
opened in 1991. Thanks to community sweat equity and donations,
plus funding from the province, an expanded interpretive centre
was completed in 2007. Today, the urban-fringe wilderness is teeming
with wildlife, the centre attracts 15,000 visitors a year and the
rescue facility treats and releases some 200 birds annually. “The
community is very pleased with what it’s done,” says
Weir. “It’s delighted the water is making our project
possible rather than flooding the streets.”
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COMITÉ ZIP JACQUES-CARTIER
Group for the enhancement of the St. Lawrence River at Montréal
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| PHOTO: COMITÉ ZIP JACQUES-CARTIER |
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Eighteen years ago, the Port of Montréal’s Sector
103 earned a dubious distinction: it was assessed as one of the
most contaminated sites in Eastern Canada. Only steps away from
the city’s oldest community, the busy port, considered to
be the “Gateway to North America,” contained sediments
permeated with a deadly mix of heavy metals combined with mineral
oils and petroleum by-products.
Enter Comité ZIP Jacques-Cartier.
ZIP stands for Zone d’intervention prioritaire, an “area
of prime concern.” In 1990, as part of the St. Lawrence Plan
for a Sustainable Development, 14 such areas were identified.
Following a government-driven environmental assessment, the not-for-profit
committees were charged in 1996 with brokering a consensus among
stakeholders on appropriate remedial action for each of the river’s
major sectors, from lac Saint-François, near the Ontario-Quebec
border, to Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
“Our greatest fear
was that the undisturbed sediments sitting at the bottom of the
bay would eventually float to the surface,” says Chantal Rouleau,
coordinator for Comité ZIP Jacques-Cartier. “That would
pose a serious threat to both human and ecological health.” Bringing
together a cast of community, municipal and industrial representatives,
Comité ZIP Jacques-Cartier started working to raise public
awareness and develop solutions. “This region is an urban
industrial landscape intertwined with residential communities,” says
Rouleau. “It was important to have all concerned stakeholders
take part in the discussions.”
The key clients of Sector 103 — petrochemical
and mining companies — were also key to its restoration. In
2001, these companies joined the Montréal Port Authority
in making a financial commitment of $10 million to dredge
the area. By the end of 2007, a total of 52,000 cubic metres of
contaminated sediments had been hauled away. “One of the challenges
we faced was finding safe disposal sites for the contaminated
materials,” says Rouleau. Today, as a result of the Comité’s
work, the province of Quebec has the infrastructure in place to
deal with mixed-contaminant storage. “What is amazing about
this victory,” says Rouleau, “is the voluntary participation
of our industrial partners.”
With this success in place, the
Comité is implementing a new plan. The Aménagement
et environnement de la Pointe-de-l’Île outlines sustainable
development for the region, promising a harmonious coexistence of
residential neighbourhoods and industrial facilities. Says Rouleau: “We
want to improve the quality of life for people in Montréal’s
East End.”
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GERARD NELLESTIJN
Salmo Watershed Streamkeepers Society
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| PHOTO: MICHELLE FLEMING
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The lessons Gerard Nellestijn learned at the knee of his father,
a Dutch master carpenter, have served him in good stead. All structures,
he was taught, demand a solid foundation and ongoing care. And none
more, the environmentalist has realized, than the natural world
in which he lives.
Nellestijn grew up in London, Ont., not far from
the banks of the Thames River, and like many members of his generation,
he spent countless hours exploring outdoors and developing a passion
for nature. After earning a degree in anthropology at the University
of Western Ontario and travelling the world, Nellestijn migrated
to Western Canada in the late 1970s, working in the oil industry
before making the move to outdoor education. “I became involved
with high-risk kids,” he says. “Understanding the environment
is about getting people into nature, where they can appreciate its
beauty.”
By 1997, Nellestijn was able to make his beloved
weekend home near Salmo, B.C., his full-time address. The outdoorsman
found a community in transition, with some townsfolk eager to rehabilitate
area waterways long despoiled by decamped forestry and mining companies.
So Nellestijn put his skills to work as coordinator of the nascent
Salmo Watershed Streamkeepers Society, building an ethic of environmental
stewardship from the ground up.
Nellestijn fostered partnerships
with like-minded organizations and applied for funding. Adapting
the community how-to handbook of the Pacific Streamkeepers
Federation, he and a biology consultant walked the Salmo River’s
tributaries. They conducted surveys to identify restoration options
and engaged local youth in fieldwork. “Our baseline
analysis of the watershed described the impact of clear-cut logging
and tailings sites on the uphill streams,” he says. “Today,
some of those kids have degrees in environmental science.”
Nellestijn’s
lasting success has come from his gift for integrating the decade-long
campaign into the fabric of community life — RiverArt 2000
showcased artists’ interpretations of the area, and a poster
and postcard initiative educated citizens about the impact of development
on riparian habitats. His inclusive message has galvanized community
will in support of restoration strategies, including the cleanup
of two tailings sites and the creation of a watershed planning team
and a fish-sustainability plan. “We took a creative
approach,” says Nellestijn, “and now we have industry,
government and landowners who are in tune with the environment.
It’s the social connection and a sense of stewardship that
are moving things along.”
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