NewmarketToday welcomes your letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). This is a copy of a letter (edited for length) sent to Newmarket Mayor John Taylor, Regional Councillor Tom Vegh and Ward 2 Councillor Victor Woodhouse.
I write to you today about a small area in Newmarket close to my heart. Unfortunately, like most remaining wild areas in Newmarket, it has been slated for development. This is one of the few remaining green spaces within our town's small boundaries. It contains unique ecological diversity, and has important historical value.
It doesn't have a name and hasn't been designated as a park. It is simply an undeveloped greenspace that is rare to almost non-existent in Newmarket. This is the largest patch of unprotected, undeveloped, forested land in town. I have frequented the area for over 30 years, watching development slowly creep in and chip away at its beauty from all directions.
First, hundreds of townhomes were constructed, along with a large apartment building. Then came a church and fire station. Shortly after came a strip plaza. Next were more townhomes and a retirement building. Then, even more townhomes, followed by another plaza and apartment building.
The land was formerly lush forest and wetlands with a crisp, clear river cutting through rolling hills. Currently, the creek is almost stagnant in some spots and riddled with garbage. Century-old trees now overlook townhomes, the wetlands have been paved and the fields are already set for development.
I can only estimate how many hours of my life have been spent here... it would be in the thousands. I know each twist, turn, hill and valley. Every moment spent in this wilderness paradise was a learning experience that taught my friends and I to respect nature and its creatures. It was a privilege to have a space like this close to home.
We played hockey on the ponds in the winter. In the summer, we built treehouses and rope swings, camped out alongside campfires and played hide and seek. Another favourite pastime was catching frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, turtles, minnows, crayfish and snakes. We would look for snakes and within maybe an hour, come home with a dozen and sometimes more, which we would later release.
These reptiles and amphibians are indicator species as they require clean, unpolluted environments to exist. They tell the story of a healthy ecosystem with their presence, or a polluted ecosystem with their absence. It is depressing to check old "catching" spots only to find them free of snakes or salamanders and covered with garbage. The creatures aren't entirely gone though, thankfully. The ones that remain cling to existence despite the pressure placed on them. This is just a small example of what has happened and continues to happen in Newmarket and the entire GTA.
The forested area lies west of Leslie, north of Mulock and over to the south border of Gorham in some areas. The area represents one of the only wild spaces that is not within 50 metres of the shores of the Holland River. Proximity to the Holland River seems to be the only requirement that protects greenspace from development in Newmarket.
This place exists in a space where deciduous and coniferous species mingle. At the northern tip of the Carolinian Zone, hickories, walnuts, chestnut, sassafras, elm, gum, basswood, apple, cherry and many more rare trees grow. Alongside these species are firs, spruces, pines and other coniferous trees of the Boreal Zone. Common trees like maples, cedars, poplars, oaks, beech, birch and ash also grow in this diverse section of land. The ground is covered by thick bushes, shrubs, plants, ferns, decaying trees, mushrooms, fungi, long grasses and wildflowers.
In this small space, I have seen and photographed species that include deer, beaver, muskrat, mink, fox, coyote, groundhog, weasels, crayfish, newts, salamanders, mud puppies, frogs, toads, turtles, skunks, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, raccoons, possums, snakes, mice, moles, voles, shrews and bats.
I have found owls, grouse, wild turkeys, herons, woodpeckers, ducks, geese, goldeneyes, hawks, merlons, jays, swallows, swans, bluebirds, finches, sparrows, doves, cardinals, orioles and hummingbirds. Even the odd bear has wandered through.
Along with its unique forest diversity, there are streams, ponds, bogs and grasslands. This important area connects wildlife zones with the Holland River north of Fairy Lake and east across the 404 where larger spaces of forest exist. This is mainly via the Bogart creek, which runs from the Oak Ridges Moraine to the Holland River and creates small wildlife passages between developed parts.
The creek runs east past Kennedy road and south past Aurora Road. The creek itself is a shadow of what it once was, but is still beautiful in parts and important ecologically, despite all the roads and development. It still has minnows, sunfish, bass, pike, perch and crappie. Crayfish, salamanders, newts, mudpuppies, frogs and toads use these ponds, rivers and streams to breed. The wetlands contain beavers, mink, muskrat, as well as many birds, some which use them as a migratory stopover and others that are at-risk or even endangered.
The creek and surrounding lands are said to have been an important Aboriginal route for trading. Traditionally the land of the Huron-Wendat Nation, it was a prime connection from rivers running north out of Lake Ontario up to Lake Simcoe. The Holland River and its tributaries are well documented as valuable travel paths for the Indigenous and connect a large area of vital importance.
Bogart Creek would almost undoubtedly have been used by Aboriginals travelling through the area as it is one of the most prominent waterways between the Rouge River and the East Holland River. I suspect many artifacts would be discovered here if an appropriate archaeological study was conducted.
Bogarttown, a small community that existed when Newmarket was just forming, also lies here. The old Mill Pond remains, as does one of the oldest existing structures in the region, the John Bogart House, constructed in 1811. Located at 16860 Leslie St., the house has been designated for its historical and architectural significance by the Town of Newmarket, although it has been ignored for decades.
The developer argued in 2018 that modifications and deterioration compromised the home's heritage value and proposed to demolish it. Luckily, the Bogart House has been spared. Apparently history, like wildlife, is also prioritized far below money and new development in Newmarket. A large condominium has already been built behind it, with townhomes on the other side of the large pond on Mulock.
The open field south of this historical gem was once destined to be a cemetery, but now over 300 new houses are set to go in. Just what Newmarket needs, another sprawling housing development.
Newmarket has a very high density in a small area, and this is with very few existing highrise buildings. Essentially, we have developed all of our greenspace within the limits of town. Any park area is secluded from others in giant housing developments and is usually too small to support a true wilderness space.
Besides the small, narrow strip of "greenspace" beside the Holland River, Newmarket is a condensed suburban parking lot. With the Ford government, it seems development of the remaining green spaces is inevitable. Perhaps this small paradise could be spared?
Populations are set to explode in Newmarket, Aurora, East Gwillimbury and Bradford in the coming years, making the protection of these small patches of wilderness more important than ever. Sprawl continues to bulldoze over our rare and beautiful landscape in southern Ontario. There are no parklands in the southeast corner of Newmarket. It would connect the area to vital wetlands like the Holland River and large areas of forest across the 404 highway.
Newmarket has already paved over much of the Holland River for a parking lot at the tannery. It has reduced the wild areas to a fraction of the land, removing old growth forest, wetlands and savannah, as well as parts of the Oak Ridges Moraine and Simcoe watershed.
An archeological survey needs to be conducted, as this was part of a main Aboriginal route from Toronto to Lake Simcoe. An ecological assessment needs to be conducted also, as there are trees over 80 feet tall and others that appear to be hundreds of years old. Rare trees, plants and animals are present, some much further north than they normally occur. One of the oldest buildings in town and possibly in all of the GTA stands precariously while development surrounds it. I think it should be restored and turned into a museum before it is too late. The grasslands and fields need to left to return to their natural states.
Head deep enough into the forest and the sounds of cars and humans cannot be heard. The only sounds are the faint rushing waters of a once powerful river, the birds chirping and wind blowing through the towering trees. A space unknown and ignored by most, with historical and ecological value that cannot be measured lies right in Newmarket.
I suggest you visit the area to see it yourself. Witness the towering trees reaching for sunlight above the canopy and unique old growth forest. Listen to the birds and wind. Listen to the silence, in an area where silence is virtually non-existent. Feel the cold rushing waters of the stream. Admire a place where deer, owls and coyotes roam. A land with history from the Indigenous peoples who inhabited the area hundreds of years ago to the beginning of the town itself exists directly beneath your feet. The wilderness we live among is a blessing, yet we continually destroy it without conscience.
What is it worth to protect an area where rare ecosystems intermingle? What is the value of irreplaceable history to an area? What does it take to show a town that a wild space is more important than another housing development?
Leaders need to show integrity and foresight so places like this can be protected and preserved for future generations. With this power and influence comes responsibility. Please make the right decision on this small patch of wilderness, a microcosm of a land and town that Newmarket should be and once was.
Steve Koroll
Steve Koroll
Newmarket
