I am making this submission…

I am making this submission on behalf of the board members and members of the Huronia Land Conservancy. I am one of the current Co-chairs of the Huronia Land Conservancy.

The Huronia Land Conservancy (HLC) is among the newest of Ontario's 35 land trusts - charitable, non profit NGO's dedicated to protecting lands with important natural and/or cultural features in perpetuity. HLC's area of interest is the northern half of Simcoe county, an area bounded by Wasaga Beach on the west, Awenda Park and Severn Sound on the north, the highway 400 corridor on the east and the city of Barrie on the south.

HLC fully supports the submissions already made by Nature Barrie: The Brereton Field Naturalists' Club of Barrie, and the Couchiching Conservancy, the other Ontario Land Trust with interest in north and north west Simcoe County.

The human population, the Species at Risk and the biological ecosystems of North Simcoe rely on careful and active protection of all natural water features. The Ontario government and municipalities have a responsibility to identify threats to water features and to regulate land use to ensure that all such features remain healthy for current and future people and for nature.

While HLC agrees with the urbanization emphasis of the Greenbelt expansion study, we feel that the study should not be limited to urbanization when water resources and biodiversity are also negatively impacted by so many other things, such as aggregate extraction, some agricultural practices, waste management decisions, land speculation, commercialization of rural lands, water taking, and, overarching all else, climate change.

It falls to municipalities and land trusts such as HLC to protect as much sensitive land as possible from all of these damaging processes. This daunting task would be aided immensely if the future Greenbelt boundaries were extended to include all of Simcoe County. Yet, this cannot occur if the current study area does not include an analysis of water sources and recharge areas for all of northern Simcoe County.

HLC therefore requests that the current study area be expanded to include all of the watersheds, aquifers and recharge areas of northern Simcoe County. In addition, HLC requests that the study parameters be changed to reach beyond future urbanization by including the effects of other human activities and climate change.