On September 26 there is Public Meeting at Council regarding a proposal to convey 10.5 hectares from private ownership to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). This is the kind of public meeting which I truly enjoy! When NCC acquires property it implements conservation and stewardship activities to help sustain the forest. If this acquisition is completed conserved lands in Happy Valley Forest will total 313 hectares (773 acres). Here is the report detailing specifics land, location etc.
Hi Debbie,
I am afraid I cannot make this evenings meeting but think the comment in the Planning department report is misleading in stating “to provide equestrian uses consistent with historic activity and in the interim, pending formalization of the property management plan and the development of the Township wide trail system focusing on a variety of users, to permit continued access to historic trails on the property”.
To my knowledge there is no legal historic activity of equestrian use on this land. The only activity has been one of trespassing on private land.
Maybe this point should be raised at the meeting.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Mike
Hi Mike….I must apologize for not posting your comment earlier; and I unfortunately did not see it prior to the 9/27 Council meeting. I intend to provide some more information about what was discussed at Council about this report. But, at this point I do want to say that subject of trespassing came up several times. Furthermore, I did make the point that even if there were historic equestrian trails that is not justification for continuing to have them. There are many activities which were done historically but at some point they are deemed to not be appropriate and are discontinued.