I oppose this proposal…

I oppose this proposal.

Wasaga Beach is one of the last strongholds of the piping plover. For piping plovers, losing natural beach habitat is a death sentence. These birds build tiny scrapes on open beaches between the water’s edge and the foredunes. They rely on natural features like dunes, beach debris and wrack lines — old bits of aquatic vegetation that shelter insects and tiny crustaceans.

When we bulldoze beaches flat, sanitize them up for tourism, or build roads and homes nearby, we destroy the very ecosystem that piping plovers — and countless other species — depend on to survive. Ontario’s own experts have said that once dune systems are lost, they may take decades to recover. Plovers can’t wait that long.

Plovers are what scientists call an “indicator species” — when they disappear, it’s a red flag that the entire beach ecosystem is collapsing. They’re nature’s early warning system — and the architects of the free, wild recreation space Wasaga has always been.