Including Rural River…

Including Rural River Valleys as a component in the Greenbelt

The inclusion of urban river valleys within the Greenbelt was an important strengthening of the beneficial outcomes that result from Greenbelt Designation. River valleys are the most important connective elements of the greenspace system upon which both natural ecosystems and human society depends for health and well-being.

River valleys outside urban settlement areas are just as important to the health and well being of ecosystems and human interaction with nature as are urban river valleys. While river valleys that are within areas with Greenbelt Designation are covered by high-level policy statements speaking of the requirement for protection and enhancement of all Natural Heritage features and functions there is no specifically-expressed policies that emphasize the importance of river valleys in the experiencing of nature by humans that is foundational to the physical, emotional and spiritual health of individuals and communities.

Both within the existing Greenbelt and in any areas of Greenbelt expansion there should be river corridors given specific land use controls. A good starting point for definition of corridor size would be to make a 60 m width from the top of either bank, or the Regionall Flood waterlevel line, or 10 m beyond the top of slope of steeply-sloped valley land (using whichever criteria was largest) a no-development zone with provisions for adjudication for special study areas.
The Green Belt provisions for rural river valleys should be considered as adding considerations of aesthetics (significant vista) and accessibility via trails for nature-based recreation to existing protective legislation based on Natural Heritage Feature values.

Speed and Eramosa Rivers and Blue Springs Creek Valleys as Significant Waterway Corridors

The rural portion of the valleys of the Speed and Eramosa Rivers and Blue Springs Creek are the most conspicuous green-corridor areas in Southern Ontario. The water quality in these rivers is very good and much of the channel length is rated as cold or cool water because high enough summer baseflow maintains cool water temperature.
These three stream corridors would provide an excellent test area to evaluate the feasibility and utility of establishing what amounts to waterway parks in Southern Ontario, similar in some ways but different from others from waterway parks in northern Ontario.

Adoption of watershed-based planning in the assessment of Greenbelt expansion

The data set used to identify and evaluate possible areas for Greenbelt Expansion did not adequately reflect the watershed-based data assembled in the sourcewater studies. This comment has been documented by submissions from Waterloo Region and the City of Guelph. The final boundaries for any extension area should take full account of the principles of watershed planning and, as far as practicable, correspond to watershed or aquifer-based boundaries.