Hello. Ontario birders might want to know that a small breeding population of Golden-winged Warblers in the Codrington area of Brighton Township is currently under threat from a large gravel operation planned by St Marys Cement (CBM). CBM has applied to strip and excavate 105 hectares of forest and scrubland on the moraine north of the Old Wooler Road and east of Highway 30. The environmental assessment commissioned by CBM concedes that there are indeed Golden-winged Warblers at the site (a species of special concern in the province, threatened nationally, and protected under the federal *Migratory Birds Convention Act*), but suggests that there are enough other GWWAs in the immediate neighbourhood to offset the losses from the actual property. They imply as well that dislocated birds will simply move over to suitable territory nearby. The collateral environmental disruption of the neighbouring properties (noise, dust, light, 24-hour crushing and trucking) will make nonsense of these specious suggestions.
In my years of visiting the property affected, it has hosted GWWA, BWWA, and the common hybrid offspring BRWA (as well as very many other species, obviously). Brighton Council will debate CBM’s rezoning application (from rural to industrial) on August 10. Should that rezoning be defeated locally, CBM will appeal to the OMB (with predictable results, I fear). Codrington/Brighton residents are in the early stages of forming a number of bodies dedicated to fighting this application. There is a fledgling(!) Facebook Group called Stop the Codrington Gravel Pit, which Facebook users may visit. For those who wish more information, including how to register an objection with CBM and the MNR, I will provide other contact addresses by private email as they become available to me. In the words of the Co-ordinator of this list: “This species is truly stressed. . . . This is a declining population throughout Ontario and can ill afford additional habitat removal." Exactly. Skip Shand _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list ONTBIRDS@hwcn.org For information about ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/
