Dear ERO: As a life-long…

Dear ERO:

As a life-long Ontarian, I am very proud of our provincial park system and its efforts to protect our natural environment. As I am sure you well know, we very unfortunately have an existential biodiversity crisis colliding with an existential climate crisis, leading to (or immersing ourselves within) what many acclaimed scientists consider our planet's sixth great extinction event.

Devil's Glen Provincial Park is an incredibly unique and special place. It's rugged terrain and majestic cliffs have protected much of its rare flora and fauna for the past 200 years of European settlement and its resulting disruption of the natural environmental order.

I truly believe that Ontario Parks primary mandate must be the protection of natural refuges such as Devil's Glen Provincial Park, in order that its plants and wildlife can exist as they should without detrimental human behavior. The recent explosion of unsanctioned rock climbing activities and climbing routes within the Park has very much disrupted that natural order. It has damaged and threatens the very entities that make the Glen's environment so special - entities that I'm sure were the very reasoning for this park's creation decades ago.

The impact of so many climbers invading the cliff area and forest leading to it is very apparent. Unnatural erosion of the cliff face, erosion and compaction of the talus slope and areas above the cliffs, the cutting of vegetation including some of the remarkable ancient cedar trees for trails and climbing routes, the disruption of the significant bat and bird colonies, and the interference that so many humans in a concentrated area can cause on the lives of the wildlife community are all reasons that you should pause to take stock of what you are risking by proposing to permit rock climbing to continue, and even be sanctioned, within the park. Not only will this proposed amendment place further pressure on this fragile landscape, it also will set what I consider to be a dangerous precedent that the natural environments within Ontario Parks can be sacrificed simply for the recreational pleasure of select humans.

My family has lived near Devil's Glen since the early1840's. We are not against rock climbing, as long as it is not harming the wondrous habitat part which is our home and supports our lives. My family and I cannot support the proposal to permit rock climbing at the sensitive and vulnerable ecological habitats of Devil's Glen Provincial Park.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide comment, and I truly hope that you will utilize your powers to first and foremost protect Nature, even if it contradicts the endless pursuit of humans to exploit it for financial or recreational gains.