Borer’s Falls – Cootes #071031

See also Borers Falls (071007) for Borer’s Falls details

COOTES PARADISE

Cootes Paradise is an 840-hectare wildlife sanctuary containing a 250-hectare coastal wetland located at the west end of Hamilton Harbour, a natural bay at the west end of Lake Ontario. The sanctuary supports a wide variety of plants and animals including rare and threatened species.

Its 30,000-hectare drainage basin acts as the catchment for three main waterways: Spencer Creek, Borer’s Creek and Chedoke Creek. Several smaller streams including Westdale Creek, Long Valley Brook, Hickory Brook and Highland Creek flow into the marsh as well. The Dundas Sewage Treatment Plant and several Combined Sewage Overflows also discharge into Cootes Paradise.

Located at the crest of the Golden Horseshoe between two major yet largely fragmented biomes—the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Life Zone and the Carolinian Life Zone—Cootes Paradise is surrounded by agricultural, residential, industrial, commercial and recreational lands. Its urban location makes this sanctuary a vital link to other conservation areas in the region including Spencer Gorge, Iroquois Heights and Borer’s Fall’s/Rock Chapel—part of the Bruce Trail and the Niagara Escarpment UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.

Cootes Paradise Marsh is considered one of the most important waterfowl staging habitats on the lower Great Lakes and the largest nursery habitat for fish in the region. The Government of Ontario has designated Cootes Paradise as a Provincially Significant Class 1 Wetland and an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI). It also is listed as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) in the Hamilton Region.

Historic Description of Cootes Paradise Marsh

Prior to the 20th century, the nutrient-rich, shallow waters of Cootes Paradise thrived as a coastal freshwater marsh habitat. Almost 100 percent of Cootes Paradise was covered with emergent aquatic plants like wild rice and submergent plants such as wild celery, providing food, shelter and migration stop-overs for a variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects. The lush wetland also provided suitable spawning, nursery and adult habitat for many native warm water fish like bass and pike and cold water species such as herring and trout.

The plentiful flora and fauna of the Great Lakes coastal freshwater marshes did not go unnoticed by settlers in the 1800s. Cootes Paradise and its surrounding natural habitats offered abundant fishing and hunting opportunities, fertile farmland and convenient access to water. However, human settlement of Hamilton Harbour and its surrounding natural lands brought with it several stressors that, over time, had a cumulative impact on the natural abundance of Cootes Paradise and neighbouring lower Grindstone Creek.

Throughout both Cootes Paradise and Grindstone Creek watersheds, agricultural practices and residential, commercial and industrial development contaminated connecting tributaries with sewage effluent, eroded soil and sediment and chemical runoff. By 1837 the Desjardins Canal, a shipping channel dissecting the marsh and terminating at the extreme western end in Dundas, reduced the marsh’s capacity to assimilate nutrients and stabilize sediments.

Feeding and spawning behaviours of non-native carp uprooted and destroyed marsh plants and re-suspended sediment making waters cloudy, preventing light penetration and plant growth. By the end of the 19th century, exotic plant species like purple loosestrife and reed manna grass, accidentally introduced to North America, began successfully competing with, and eradicating, native plants. The natural ecology of Cootes Paradise and Grindstone Creek was further disrupted in 1956 when the Seaway Commission began regulating Lake Ontario water levels.

As human pressures on the watersheds increased, the decline in the health and biodiversity of Cootes Paradise became markedly visible. In the 1930s Cootes Paradise experienced a 15% permanent reduction in marsh vegetation. By 1985 the level of plant growth had decreased further, losing 85% of its original plant cover. This permanent loss of aquatic flora had a direct negative impact on water quality and the fish and wildlife inhabitants of Cootes Paradise and lower Grindstone Creek.

Concerns over environmental degradation led the International Joint Commission to designate Hamilton Harbour as one of 42 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes. In 1986, the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan was initiated to address this environmental degradation in the Harbour including key areas like Cootes Paradise and lower Grindstone Creek. Under this plan, a variety of conservation projects and monitoring programs have been implemented to control pollution, restore and improve fish and wildlife habitat and enhance public access.

Cootes Paradise is a large wetland at the western end of Hamilton Harbour, bordering the cities of Hamilton and Burlington, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and managed by the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG). Originally a shallow marsh providing habitat for a wide variety of lifeforms, the marsh went into decline beginning in the late 19th century through human overuse and the introduction of carp into Hamilton Harbour. By 1985, 85% of its plant cover was lost. In an effort to reverse this ecological decline, the RBG introduced Project Paradise in 1993, part of the Hamilton Harbour Remedial Action Plan. The project focuses on removing sources of stress to the marsh by minimizing the number of spawning carp and the planting of native plants. There are five identified anthropogenic stresses: overgrazing by carp and Canada Geese, high nutrient levels, water turbidity, sediment accumulation, and the controlled water level in Lake Ontario. Controlled burns have also been conducted in an effort to restore some of the forest areas to their original Oak savanna ecosystem, a rare grouping of Carolinian plants and animals. Cootes Paradise is connected to Hamilton Harbour via the Desjardins Canal which was dug through Burlington Heights in the early 19th century in an effort to connect Dundas, Ontario with shipping on the Great Lakes. In 2000, the City of Hamilton constructed a 3 km recreational trail connecting Cootes Paradise to Pier 4 park; this trail is also part of the Waterfront Trail system.

Plants

Cootes Paradise is home to numerous plant species of all sorts, a number of which have been introduced following European settlement of the area. Among the trees found in Cootes Paradise are various species of oak, maple, and pine, as well as less common species such as sassafras tree, Kentucky Coffee Tree, and tulip tree. In recent years there has been a noticeable die-off of trees on the RGB property surrounding Cootes Paradise, and in 2005, following the death of a child participating on a nature hike, the RGB was forced to cut down numerous dead and dying trees that posed a public-safety concern.

Mammals

A number of mammals inhabit Cootes Paradise, including White-tailed deer, Red Fox, Raccoon, Beaver, and Red Squirrel.

Birds

Many species of birds use Cootes Paradise at some point during the year, most notably during the Spring and Autumn migratory periods. Notable species include the Caspian tern, Black-crowned night heron, Osprey, Pileated woodpecker, and the Protonothary warbler.

Fish

Numerous species of fish are found in the murky waters of Cootes Paradise, among them being bottom-feeders such as the Brown bullhead and invasive species such as the White perch. Sport fish such as pike, Largemouth bass, and Yellow perch are also found in limited numbers.

Cootes Drive

Cootes Drive was built in 1936, one of the first divided highways in Ontario. In those days wetlands were seen as impediments to “progress” a progress that put a premium on automobile mobility. As a result, a significant wetland was in filled to accommodate the road.

Ø Originally named King's Highway 8D

Ø Built to bypass a winding section of Hwy 8 between Hamilton and Dundas. Known as the Dundas Diversion

Ø Renamed Hwy 102 in 1947

Ø Construction began in early 1936, grading of the two roadways completed by end of 1936 and unofficially opened to the public

Ø One of the first divided highways ever built in Ontario

Ø Paved in 1937

Ø Served as a model for other divided highway projects in the late 1930s, the most notable being the QEW and the initial phases of Hwy 401

Ø The highway is 3.2 Km long

Ø The posted speed is 80 km/h

Ø There are two lanes in each direction

Hickory Island and Cormorants

Fish-eating birds destroyed the forest cover on Hickory Island. Although you wouldn’t know it now, the island was once covered with trees. Where did they all go?

The answer lies in a black seabird called the Double-crested Cormorant. You may have seen them in summer feeding in Cootes Paradise, loitering on Hickory Island, or flying in ragged V-shaped flocks out to Lake Ontario.

Cormorants are colonial nesters, meaning that they nest together in large groups. They first started nesting on Hickory Island in 1995 and their local population increased quickly, reaching 218 nests by 1998. They are not very sophisticated housekeepers, and their droppings, which are very high in nitrogen, coated the plants below the nests and eventually killed them. As the roots of the dead trees rotted, the trees blew over, depriving the cormorants of nesting sites. The Hickory Island cormorant colony has thus declined steadily since 1998.