I am gravely concerned about…

I am gravely concerned about the proposed updates to the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES).

The proposed updates to the OWES suggest removing some scoring criteria, while wetlands must still meet the same score to be considered provincially significant. The updates also include no longer allowing wetlands to be grouped together as a wetland complex but instead treating each wetland as its own entity. With this proposed change wetland units on their own will unlikely meet the criteria to be provincially significant and may be open for development. This could inevitably open the door to wetland complexes with pre-exiting Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW) status being re-evaluated and stripped of their provincially significant designation.

As such the negative impacts this could present to critical natural habitat and threatened and endangered species, would put them further at risk.

This this is without question putting developers and land speculators ahead of environmental protections that safeguard people’s health, homes and livelihoods.

In years gone by wetlands have been drained, altered or destroyed due to farming, housing, roads construction, and other development. In some ways this is almost excusable due to a lack of understanding regarding the services wetlands provide and the impact such destruction could have.
Land-use and planning mistakes made in the past led to the creation of laws, regulations, and plans to restore and protect wetlands in Ontario.

Wetlands are among the most valuable ecosystems on the planet!

We know wetlands are vital for biodiversity, to purify the air so we can breathe properly, cycle nutrients so we have access to clean drinking water without costly infrastructure, reduce flooding by acting like natural sponges that absorb water to prevent floods, help buffer against drought, pollinate our crops so we don't go hungry as well as capture and store carbon dioxide in vegetation and so much more. Once damaged or destroyed, the carbon wetlands were storing is released into the atmosphere and is impossible to recapture. This makes wetlands a most effective and long-term nature-based approach to mitigating climate change that should not be dismissed.

Wetlands are economically important to Ontario. They are popular places for recreational activities, such as hunting, hiking, canoeing, and bird-watching which is a tourism draw. Nature tourism is a huge economic contributor and helps support communities in rural and remote areas. This translates to employment opportunities as well.

Today, equipped with the best possible science based information available and a much better understanding of the services wetlands provide and our dependence on them. We have no excuse but to be good stewards to wetlands. Finding ways to bypass wetland protection through revising the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System so access can be gained to protected wetlands for development is going backwards and gambling with our future.

Filling in wetlands to build is about short sighted gain. When wetlands are filled, the water that makes them wet has to go somewhere. They do not easily support development. The soil is wet, spongy, and difficult to build on. There are chances that a home built will settle or suffer from seepage problems and drainage issues in the long run. Filling in a wetland and thinking the matter of water running it’s natural course is dealt with or outmaneuvered is an uphill battle just begun.

Developers carving away at even small wetlands may benefit but homeowners will be left with the problems created such as flooding and drought damage, nutrient runoff, water pollution, and shoreline erosion. Buyer beware!

Volumes could be written on why wetlands are important.They are genius by design and the varied services and provisions provided for the mere cost of being stewards to the wetlands. It is estimated it would cost trillions of dollars to replicate the services provided and it would be impossible to duplicate many.

The ecosystem services wetlands provide make life possible! We depend on healthy ecosystems to sustain our way of life. Moving forward we should be very much focused on wetland conservation and management and build on land already designated for development.

Please leave the Ontario Wetland Evaluation System (OWES) as is and Focus on wetland conservation instead of destruction.