Category: Municipal Planning

Jackson Park got its Heritage Designation!

Hey Peterborough! Hey Jackson Park! Congratulations! We did it! On December 6th 2021 city council voted to add Jackson Park to the official heritage register under the Ontario Heritage Act. For over 100 years Jackson Park has been a fixture in the Peterborough community. Envisioned by the Nichols Trust as a respite from the growing city; this beloved park has more than fulfilled it’s role.

Tomorrow we’ll get back to work, but let’s celebrate this beloved park. By the numbers, Jackson Park is an impressive place. A summary to date (December 2021):

  • 143 Bird Species have been catalogued on the Jackson Park Ebird hotspot
  • 1232 iNnaturalist observations
  • 244 identified species of plants
  • 4.5 hectares of Old Growth Forest
  • 15 degrees cooler than the rest of Peterborough!
  • 250+ year old trees
  • 4.5km of Trans-Canada Trail
  • Countless annual visitors

All of these things add such great value to Peterborough, and it is all worth protecting for the future. There is lots of hard work to be done to further protect and restore this important heritage location. From invasive species, trampling of the undergrowth, to climate change, or even just trails in disrepair there is still lots to do. I’m personally looking forward to tackling these challenges to pass this space along to future generations.

  • Jackson Creek looking west
  • Looking over Jackson Park towards downtown Peterborough
  • Bloodroot on the forest floor
  • Wild Mint growing at the water’s edge.
  • Limestone exposed by the river at the valley bottom.
  • An enormous ice jam holding water in Jackson Park.

Thanks so much to councilor Kim Zippel to bringing this motion forward from the Heritage Committee. And thank you to council for seeing this motion through to completion.

2021-12-06 3 Comments

A Huge Opportunity for Jackson Park

Monday December 6th 2021 will hopefully be a momentous occasion for Jackson Park. Peterborough City council will sit down to vote on a heritage designation for Jackson Park. The implications of this are huge for one of the most cherished locations in Peterborough. In September 2019 the City’s Architectural Conservation Authority Committee recommended that Jackson Park receive this illustrious designation and hopefully this will come to fruition on Monday.

Sign The Petition to Protect Jackson Park

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Jackson Park more than deserves this designation. The park has been a fixture in the Peterborough ever since it was donated to the city by the Nichols Trust 1893. It features prominently in the shared memory of the city. One is hard pressed to flip through any historical account of Peterborough without stumbling upon several references to the venerated park.

Indeed there are many parks on the continent that have received special protections that Jackson Park does not have. Parks built and designed in the same period by Frederick Olmsted generally receive substantial heritage recognition and protections. Meanwhile, Jackson Park has yet to receive protections (or attention) afforded to significantly younger designs and buildings in the city of Peterborough.

One hopes that this can be a first step towards protecting and enhancing Jackson Park for future generations. There are many threats facing the park, and hopefully this designation can assist in pushing the envelope for greater attention to those threats. If you haven’t already, take a moment to go sign the petition being passed to city council. Or write to your councilor to voice your support for this designation.

2021-12-04 3 Comments

Is Your Neighborhood The Hottest In Peterborough?

On August 15th 2021 it was 23.9°C at the Peterborough Municipal Airport. By all respects, an average summer temperature. If you looked at a thermometer outside your house though, it might paint a much different picture. In the downtown core and areas along Lansdowne St. temperatures reached as high as 40°C. This represents over 15°C temperature difference! What is happening and how can it be stopped?

The urban heat island is a phenomenon we’ve long known about. It occurs when natural land cover such as forest or meadows are replaced with surfaces that retain heat such as asphalt, concrete or pavement. These surfaces then radiate the heat back out into the local environment, warming the surrounding area. The effect can increase the cost of heating, and put elderly or other vulnerable citizens at risk of heat stroke, and even death.

The urban heat island effect often puts the most vulnerable populations at risk. Some of Peterborough’s lowest income census areas have the highest recorded temperatures. You’ll notice on the map that areas directly south and north of the downtown which are characteristic as lower income neighborhoods, have some of the highest recorded temperatures, while some of Peterborough’s more affluent neighborhoods have much lower recorded temperatures.

  • Image #1: Downtown South Peterborough. 35% to 43% low income households. On average +15°C
  • Image #2: Monaghan Ward 1% to 5% low income households. On average, +5°C

Image #1 characterizes a neighborhood south of downtown. Census Canada considers between 35% and 43% of the population to be low income. This neighborhood is one of the hottest in Peterborough, coming in at a 15°C temperature deviation. Meanwhile Monaghan Ward represented in image #2 only recorded a 5°C temperature deviation. It is clear that land cover and tree canopy have a huge impact on temperature deviation. With the additional pressure of climate change, these deviations are likely to become more pronounced over time.

What can be done about urban heat though? Luckily we have some solutions! Planting trees is once again, a major winner in this regard. Not only does tree planting decrease average temperatures, it can lower heating and cooling bills year round for residents, overall a huge win for the climate. Removing asphalt and other “high heat” surfaces can also benefit neighborhoods, replacing asphalt with grass is even a viable solution for combating urban heat. Depave projects around the country have made major inroads in this regard, and perhaps focusing on lower income neighborhoods could have an additional impact.

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In all, reducing the urban heat island effect gives us one more incentive to restore ecosystems, plant trees, and protect our natural areas. Perhaps years from now, when you look at the thermometer outside your house, it may more accurately reflect the temperature across our city.

Data provided by USGS through LANDSAT 8.

2021-09-27 1 Comment

What Might a Nature Based Recovery Look Like in the Kawarthas?

In 2020 the coronavirus devastated economies, put millions of people out of work, all at a time of global climate and ecological crisis. 2020 was also the year we entered into the UN’s Decade on Restoration that aims to “prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide”. No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, you can agree that one way or another, we are in a time of crisis. A term that has been tossed around over the past year as a way out of the crisis is “a nature based recovery”.

Nature based recoveries are not a new idea, we can look to the past for models on what it might look like, putting millions of people to work while restoring our natural environments. One of the most ambitious conservation projects of all time was the Civilian Conservation Corps. Over the course of the program it employed nearly 3 million Americans while planting over 3,000,000,000 (Billion!) trees. A version of this program has been resurrected by the incoming Biden administration and is expected to present a plan within the next several months. It will be exciting to see it take shape over the coming years.

Embed from Getty Images

Closer to home, we can look to similar projects that helped employ masses of Canadians while enhancing our natural environment. Following the Guelph Conference and the subsequent establishment of the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority there was a resolution to seek any practical project that would employ civilians in the post war era. The Ganaraska region had become a dustbowl due to the high rates of erosion caused by rampant deforestation and the underlying sandy soils easily being swept away by wind or rain. Restoring the Ganaraska Watershed seemed like an obvious candidate for the project. Over the next several years the Ganaraska Authority reforested over 10,000 acres of land while employing thousands of unemployed Canadians.

The benefits of these programs have extended far into the future. Today the Ganaraska watershed is a popular outdoor tourism destination, and is no longer subject to the destructive flooding it once was. Indeed, a University of Oregon study found that for every million dollars invested in watershed restoration it resulted in 16 new or sustained jobs and up to 2.5 million dollars in total economic activitiy. There are very few public sector investments that have rates of return that scale in a similar fashion.

Locally, what might a project of this scale look like that could employ many people while creating enormous ecological benefit? One such project that comes to mind is the Kawarthas Naturally Connected. The KNC is a natural heritage system plan developed over the past decade that aims to provide a linked network of conservation corridors across the Kawarthas. Perhaps a project that restores a ecological corridor from the Oak Ridges Moraine or Rice Lake in the south to the Kawartha Lakes in the north could be a great starting point? As an added benefit, perhaps a multi-day hiking trail could follow the corridor similar to the way the Ontario Waterfront Trail is used as a platform for restoring coastal ecosystems along the great lakes shoreline.

History has demonstrated that these environmental projects can have an enormous environmental and social benefit, hopefully our recovery can help lead to a sustainable future for everyone. The Kawarthas is a leader in environmental expertise and stewardship, if anyone can accomplish a nature based recovery, it is us! In 2016, the UN designated Peterborough a Regional Centre of Expertise for sustainability, lets put that designation to use and carry out a decade of restoration.

2021-02-25 Add Comment

How These Cities are Keeping Their Urban Parks Open During COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the experience of the public realm in urban areas has all but vanished. There is one place where the public realm hangs on in many cities, the local parks. Unfortunately several cities around the province have resorted to the closure of their urban parks due to the reluctance of their users to practice proper social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus. Several cities have recognized the culture of park users in the past does not necessarily reflect the new reality we are facing and have made some excellent adjustments to help curb the spread of the virus. We know that access to parks and green space is an excellent way to improve public health, and park users often have decreased stress levels when visiting a park. These are both great reasons to work to keep our parks open during a pandemic!

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2020-04-21 Add Comment

A Little Toolkit For Confronting Climate Inaction

2019 was heralded as the year that ended climate change denialism. Enter a new era, where we must face a new threat: inaction on climate change.

Just over a week ago I published a short writeup on my twitter feed explaining how an enormous fountain in our town was an outsised contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in our city. This was due to the sheer volume of electicity used to power the monstrous pumps that spewed a steady stream of water 6 stories into the air.

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2020-01-27 1 Comment

A Subwatershed Plan for Harper Creek

Harper Creek is arguably one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in Peterborough. On September 23rd Peterborough City Council approved the transfer of funds to complete a subwatershed plan for Harper Creek. This is an exciting opportunity to explore how future impacts on the sensitive local environment will be mitigated. The RFP includes several items that will ensure that both the built and natural environment will be protected.

Some of the most exciting proposals include identification and analysis of the natural environment and its sensitivity. This is particularly exciting as the extent of the Harper Park Wetlands has never been assessed since the upgrade of the wetland to a provincially significant status. Additionally an analysis of cumulative impact of the built environment on the natural environment will be addressed. This is especially important as the impacts of surrounding developments on Harper Creek although purported to be small have created significant changes on the local environment when added all together.

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Note: All of this would not have been possible without the amazing leadership of Kim Zippel on who worked on the ad hoc committee who set the objectives of this study. Congratulations Kim.

2019-10-05 1 Comment

Comments on Peterborough’s Draft Natural Heritage Plan

Recently the city of Peterborough released their draft official plan for public comment. The official plan will guide the development of the city for the next several years and council cycles and provide some certainty to members of the public about how the city will develop over the next couple decades. The official plan is divided up into several sections, the one that I am personally most interested in is the Natural Heritage System. The natural heritage system is made up of all of the natural areas in our city, and the connecting features between them. This section includes a map of all identified features in our city, as well as a section of policy that will determine how these areas are regulated and managed. Over the past several years several people including myself have taken part in stakeholder meetings that will help determine the contents of the official plan before it is presented to council to vote on. With the release of the official plan, I have a couple comments and suggestions for the policy portion of the official plan.

In the draft plan. Natural areas designations are divided into “levels” to signify their importance and degree of protection. Under this system unevaluated wetlands are not defined under any level of protection. I would encourage the city to evaluate all wetlands within the city limits and re-evaluate wetlands within the city limits to further understand their boundaries and functions. Currently, although Harper Creek wetlands are designated as provincially significant there has been no effort to evaluate or update the wetland boundary. As a result several developments have had significant negative impact on the wetland function including flooding nearby neighbors.

Harper Creek Wetlands

The draft plan makes mention of the requirement to conduct environmental impact studies on new developments. I would encourage the city to lay out the exact requirements for an EIS as several other municipalities in Ontario do. In addition, the plan should encourage or development proponents to consult with municipal staff or our new environmental advisory committee. The environmental advisory committee will be an excellent resource for our city, so we should put them to work! This is a common practice and one need only look as far as the region of Durham to find an example.

Citizen’s being great natural stewards!

Finally I would encourage the city to experiment with new ways in which citizens might become involved in the identification, protection and monitoring of natural heritage functions within our city. The city of Peterborough is home to one of the greatest concentrations of environmental knowledge in Ontario, and it would be a disappointment to not put that resource to use. Formally recognizing the role that citizen science and stewardship plays in protecting and enhancing our natural areas!

The draft plan is a great first step, let’s make this plan something we can all be proud of!

2019-09-02 3 Comments

Steward’s Notes Celebrates Successful Bid to Replace Simcoe St. Parking Garage

Today Steward’s Notes is pleased to announce a successful bid to replace the Simcoe St. parking garage with a natural outdoor park! This will provide an excellent opportunity to bring daylight back to Jackson Creek and create outdoor space for the downtown community! After working with municipal counterparts it was agreed that the parking garage was underutilized and should be replaced with a showcase of Peterborough’s Natural heritage and beauty! Once again daylight will shine on Jackson Creek for the first time since the 1960s. The multi-million dollar contract will enable the total removal of the parking garage and subsequent replacement with outdoor greenspace. The bus terminal will be relocated to the King St. Parking Garage once construction begins. The benefits of this park promise to be immesurable and include:

  • Health Benefits for Nearby Residents
  • Reduced Urban Heat Island
  • Improvements to Water Quality in Jackson Creek
  • Improved Capacity to prevent major flooding
  • Opportunities to fall for an April Fools Joke!
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Explore the possibilities with this exciting new project on May 11th with Dylan Radcliffe as he leads a Jane’s Walk exploring the river as it meanders hidden through Downtown Peterborough!

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2019-04-01 2 Comments

Developer Plans Destruction of Habitat for Endangered Butternut Trees

A couple of weeks ago I received word through the Ontario Environmental Registry that a developer was seeking an application to “harm or kill an endangered species.” The Peterborough Examiner reached out for comments from the developer and their official statement was that roads and campsites would ideally be constructed around the trees. Wrapping the roads and campsites around the trees will do nothing but stress the trees and decrease the success of any saplings.

If we are to take the estimate of 10,000 remaining trees in Ontario as a reasonable number, the proposed removal or harm to 93 trees is just shy of 1% of the total population estimate. I would like to encourage everyone to submit a comment to the environmental registry before the April 8th deadline.

Submit Your Comment Here

When it comes to endangered species management it is important to consider the removal of trees as a last resort after all other options have been considered. In Canada we have no known cure for the butternut canker disease that has decimated their populations and we have not located any disease resistant trees at this time. It is therefore critical that we ensure that every known piece of genetic resource of this species is preserved until we have developed a solution to prevent the eradication of this beautiful tree.

2019-03-30 2 Comments