Canada's Moraine Management Plan - An Example of Ecological Restoration We Could Do In The Niagara Gorge

Moraine Management Plan

In 1999, Niagara Parks consulted with stakeholders and the public to create a Moraine Management Plan and policies to deal with development pressures from the Fallsview Tourist area overlooking Queen Victoria Park. Management, maintenance and rehabilitation will help limit slope instability, control erosion, increase regeneration and assure safe accessibility to the area. Future works on and adjacent to the moraine will be designed to enhance the aesthetic values and native biological diversity of the treed slope.

Phase 1 of ecological rehabilitation work began in May 2003 on the steep slope along the south side of Murray Hill behind Queen Victoria Place restaurants. The area was overgrown with a number of non-native invasive species, particularly Norway maple.

Before After

Queen Victoria Park - Public Information Sign placed near the Illumination Tower:

Moraine Management Plan

A fresh approach to a fragile ecosystem

History The treed slope or moraine of Queen Victoria Park is of aesthetic and ecological significance. A management plan was created to address problems such as erosion, access, bio-diversity, aesthetics, seepage, maintenance practices and development.

Policy Due to the nature of the slope a two-stage evaluation process established to evaluate all work proposed on the Moraine and within adjacent setback zone. Satisfaction of primary goals is required prior to review of secondary goals.

Primary Goals Biodiversity: Replace non-native plant species with native one and enhance diversity for wildlife habitat improvement.

Aesthetics: Protect and enhance the continuous and contiguous appearance of the slope as natural forest landscape.

Slope Stability/Erosion Control: Stabilize soil creep and minimize erosion providing for long-term stability.

Secondary Goals View Management: Transform the Moraine with plant material so that the visibility of the Horseshoe Falls from important sites is enhanced and improved.

Access: Discourage uncontrolled access to and unsafe use of the Moraine providing safe and comfortable alternatives.

Seepage: Use excess groundwater to enhance aesthetics and biodiversity of the slope tor.

Education/Interpretation: Produce and disseminate materials about the Moraine’s natural and cultural heritage and management.

Environmental Alliance

Niagara Parks, Niagara College and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority formed an environmental alliance dedicated to the promotion of a healthy and sustainable environment. This alliance formalizes the existing partnerships between each organization and recognizes their combined efforts in environmental stewardship and protection. The Alliance has obtained more than $100,000 funding from the Government of Canada’s "Great Lakes Sustainability Fund," to assist with two environmental initiatives aimed at sustaining important ecosystems along the Niagara River corridor.

The Niagara Gorge - Canadian Description Outlines Uniqueness

Description: The Niagara Gorge is one of the best known natural areas in the world for its waterfalls, geology and to naturalists in southern Ontario, it is also well known for its woodlands and its bird life. (Larson, B.M., et al, 1999)


Vegetation: The gorge has a great diversity of vegetation, both on bedrock substrates and on deeper soils. On the shallow soils along the gorge rim, semi-open woodlands of Chinquapin Oak, White Oak and Red Oak occur, with prairie openings of Little Bluestem and Rough Dropseed. On deeper soils, a plain forest back from the Whirlpool ravine supports Sugar Maple with scattered Red Oak and White Oak and a small thicket swamp of Grey Dogwood - Buttonbush surrounded by a swamp of Red Maple -Pin Oak - White Ash. The gorge cliffs have open communities of Smooth Cliff-brake and Bulblet Fern, with occasional marl and moss-encrusted seepage zones. Talus slopes in the gorge are largely covered in rich Sugar Maple and Black Maple forests. Northern forests of White Birch, Hemlock and White Cedar, and southern forests of Chinquapin Oak and Basswood - Butternut occur on the large block talus. Other communities on the talus slopes include Staghorn Sumac and Ninebark thickets and extensive open screes of Leafcup and Virginia Creeper. The deeper soils in the gorge, particularly at the Whirlpool and Niagara Glen, have magnificent forests of Sugar Maple with scattered towering Tulip-trees, occasional Tulip-tree groves and, on drier sites, mature forests of Red Oak and Chinquapin Oak. Younger forests of Eastern Cottonwood, White Ash and Ironwood occur as isolated stands. On the Whirlpool slopes, mass-wasting is common on the deep soils, and areas of exposed soil have pockets of Common Reed Grass, Coltsfoot and Big Bluestem. Also frequent in the Whirlpool ravine are seepage zones of Ninebark thickets and wet meadows, with showy wildflowers like Grass-of-Parnassus, Kalm's Lobelia and False Dragonhead. Cobble beaches of Indian Grass and occasional limestone blocks sustaining Upland White Aster occur along the Whirlpool shoreline. [Varga 1995]


Landform: The Niagara Gorge is the province's largest post-glacial incised valley, with a length of 11 km and a depth of 90 m. The gorge was formed over the past 12,000 years by the erosive power of the Niagara River, the Falls having receded from an initial position on the escarpment edge at Queenston. A much older erosive feature is exposed in the gorge at the Whirlpool, where the rapids have worn away at the break in the rock walls that marks the upstream end of the St. David's Buried Gorge, a former channel of the Niagara River cut before the last glaciation and since filled with glacial deposits. The Niagara Gorge incorporates 4 km of the gorge including the narrow Whirlpool Rapids Gorge and Devil's Hole Rapids Gorge, and the wider portions at the Whirlpool and Niagara Glen. Most of the gorge is topped by 10 m cliffs of the Lockport Formation dolostone, the escarpment caprock here. Rubble eroded from these cliffs has produced extensive talus slopes. At the Niagara Glen, a broad terrace along the Niagara River is known as Foster's Flats. This terrace is floored by a resistant sandstone layer, the Whirlpool Formation. In contrast to the rock substrates that cover most of the gorge, the Whirlpool ravine is covered in deep clay loams. [Varga 1995]


Representation: The Niagara Gorge is one of the most significant and certainly the best known natural area on the Niagara Escarpment. Part of the escarpment's largest incised valley and river are represented at the site. The Niagara Gorge also has the best examples in the Niagara Peninsula Section of mature, south-facing broadleaf talus forests, dry open talus and open talus seepage zones, as well as seepage cliffs, thickets and meadow marshes. The escarpment's only examples of Chinquapin Oak rim woodlands and rim prairies occur at the site. The cobble shore and shoreline meadow marsh communities are the only examples along the escarpment south of the Grey Section. The Niagara Gorge also has a noteworthy assemblage of northern and southern community types. Its northern White Birch and White Cedar talus forests are rare in the Niagara Peninsula section, and its southern Tulip-tree and Chinquapin Oak talus forests are restricted to very few sites along the escarpment. [Varga 1995]

Open letter about road removal between Lewiston and Niagara Falls

Emerson,
Here are my candid observations about your email urging peers to “consider both sides of the Robert Moses Parkway (RMP) issue before blindly signing” the Niagara Heritage Partnership (NHP) online petition for road removal between Niagara Falls and Lewiston.

In the last four years, you and the Parkway Preservation Committee have ignored the benefits of road removal.

Your unsubstantiated opinion is the RMP is “an artery” for Old Fort Niagara State Park. You ignored Main Street, Youngstown, the Fort’s mainline front door.

The NHP proposal repairs the aneurism Robert Moses caused when he built the RMP, bypassing every Niagara Falls’ business direct. Main Street, Little Italy's Pine Avenue, Third Street and Niagara Street.

Removal rehabilitates that urban-decay abscess. It creates a new life support system with documented economic stimulus numbers and new urbanism thinking.

1. Hundreds of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in tourism revenue. Data supplied by cities implementing road removal.

2. Seoul, Korea reclaimed a stream for open space. They removed 6-lanes. (Feb. 2009, Scientific American, pages 20-22)

3. USA Niagara proposed the 6-mile segment along the lower river gorge from Niagara Falls to Lewiston be removed." (A View From The Falls: The Demand and Opportunity For Hotel Development in Niagara Falls, page 51.)

4. The Curriculum Guide for Green Infrastructure Planning: "There are economic reasons for protecting "viewsheds" since they are important to attracting…Heritage Tourists...spend[ing] on average two-and-one-half times [more] than other tourists."

5. The New York Natural Heritage Program's Conservation Guide: roads and their associated run-offs are detrimental to calcareous cliff communities. page 2

6. The Smart Growth Network's "Getting to Smart Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation" pages 43-44- Chapter 6- "there is a sense of urgency to saving critical environmental areas. Communities MUST work with other communities in their region and political leaders to expend the resources and develop the innovative techniques to make open space preservation a reality."

7. RMP removal between Niagara Falls and Lewiston is what the Niagara River Greenway aspires to. See the 11 guiding principals, chapter 3, Niagara River Greenway Plan.

8. Counter compromise merely means keeping the current two lanes open.

Emerson, lead, follow, or get out of the way.

Would you live different without fear?

If I had no fear, I’d parachute over Niagara Falls and milkweed drift the gorge with an egg timer cradled in my hand.

My grandmother kept a small glass and plastic egg timer on an upper kitchen shelf. If asked, she’d hand it down and I’d play with time. The trickling white grains held a moribund fascination, a faint consciousness about inevitability. I’d flip it; place it in the yellow holder, the pour rapid through the pinched-in middle, a small mound growing in the glass bottom reservoir. Over, and over, I spun time. Sometimes, I’d pretend to beat the clock and race the timer against the red second hand. Accuracy at the time didn’t matter. I wanted to catch a final motion, stop an instant, and prevent the last grain’s fall.

Over long afternoons, I’d slow time, tilt the little timer not quite horizontal, intent on length, slowing and holding moments. As I drowsily manipulated time at the kitchen table, parental conversation meandered to obituaries. I laid the timer on its side--the tiny river suspended-- and went outside.

Define Integrity. Then Answer: Do I Have It?

Integrity’s a willingness to take a controversial stand over removing the Robert Moses Gorge Parkway to protect the natural landscape, a calcareous cliff community along the Niagara gorge-- a unique, fragile botanical and old growth environment. It’s the courage to speak against the status quo.

It’s an embrace given in a shared hospital elevator, an offer to listen over coffee when one adversary in tears states her mother’s admitted.

Integrity's my clear blue gaze meeting fourteen granite faces at a microphone, a presentation of employment facts and eco-tourism profits listed, bulleted in a mild tone, countering bureaucracy: a poor subjective decision to compromise principals and transparency in regional greenway spending.

Integrity's my slight head tilt, an unstated acknowledgment that, yes, two key people abandoned a shared environmental commitment by claiming a project consistent, one also sanctioned the commission’s decision to send letters, remonstrations, written to marginalize two Niagara resolutions--maneuvers consistent with social ostracism, silent peer criticism, and political isolation. My thank-you to the Commission for the speaking opportunity graced their public forum momentarily silent.

The morning headline: GREENWAY: Lewiston plan wins approval. Parkway removal advocates question pathway’s impact on roadway.

Integrity is locating a granule of infinitesimal gold in those I dislike. I admire the mayor who fights for his municipality.