By John Francis
MNBP Council held a Special Meeting on April 25 to receive a presentation from the consultant hired to provide input towards a new Parks and Recreation Masterplan. Also on the Agenda was a discussion of the plans for the upgrade and renovation of the arena/community centre in Lion’s Head.
The consultant’s report began with some background on community demographics. Fun fact: our population was expected to rise 15% over the last five years to 4,600 and is projected to go up by another third to 6,100 by 2046.
The report explores the results of citizen surveys undertaken as part of their research. 97 surveys were completed, 70% of the survey respondents were full-time residents. That works out to 68 actual surveys.
68 people is 1.5% of the 4,600 people who live here. So in my opinion, the most important survey result is that 98.5% of MNBP residents didn’t fill out the survey.
How are staff and Council supposed to make the right decisions when they only know the opinions of 1.5% of the people? Should the municipality and/or the consultant have made more of an effort and gotten a dramatically larger survey response?
Probably.
I wonder how many people even knew there was a consultation process going on…
The municipality apparently received comprehensive input from stakeholders, which is excellent. It’s the rest of us they didn’t hear from. It makes it hard for staff and council when they have to guess what 98.5% of us think.
NCC Invasive Species Videos
You will have noticed that Nature Conservancy of Canada received a healthy grant (thanks Bill, we’re gonna miss you) from the province to combat invasive plant species on the peninsula. The four species involved are dog-strangling vine, common buckthorn, garlic mustard and phragmites australis.
“Phrag” takes over whole wetlands and shorelines, forming a dense cover up to five metres tall and choking out EVERYTHING else. The impact is not just on vegetation — the bird, mammal, amphibian, insect and fish populations are also devastated, having evolved to utilize native species such as cattails and rushes.
The other species are less dramatic but annoying nonetheless. I am fighting a losing battle with garlic mustard on my own property — it extends its cover relentlessly unless you remove all of it. I should be out there weeding instead of writing this.
NCC has put together four videos about strategies for dealing with the various invasives. They are short, to-the-point and very helpful, giving step-by-step instructions for removing invasive species and disposing of them.
One very helpful suggestion — leave invasive plant material in a green garbage bag in direct sun for two weeks to bake the roots and seeds, then compost them.
For garlic mustard, use a digging tool to make sure you get all of the pencil-sized taproot, otherwise it’ll put out more foliage tomorrow.
Thanks NCC — good videos.
www.saugeen
peninsulainvasives.ca/videos
