New wildlife strategy in the works
Posted Mar 5, 2010 By EMC News
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Tweet ThisEMC News - Frustrated with the negative response to wildlife concerns and the growing embarrassment this is causing Ottawa across the country, community and environmental groups along with a number of city councillors are saying enough is enough.
"We made a presentation to the city's Planning and Environment Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 23 as the next step in obtaining support for a comprehensive Wildlife Strategy for Ottawa. While other cities in North America have developed 'Living with Wildlife' programs during the last decade, Ottawa, in spite of its substantial amount of green space and natural habitat, unfortunately, has not done so", said Donna DuBreuil, president of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre.
College ward councillor, Rick Chiarelli had presented a motion at the Feb. 4 meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee requesting "the Chair of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and the Chair of the Planning and Environment Committee convene a joint meeting of those committees to review and develop a wildlife strategy for the City of Ottawa".
COYOTE ISSUE
"The pressure for a Wildlife Strategy has been a long-standing one but it's the current coyote controversy that has persuaded many people that Ottawa must adopt a more progressive and proactive approach to wildlife issues", said Chiarelli.
The strategy would i) include all species, recognizing in nature everything is connected ii) be anchored in wildlife-sensitive planning and deal with human-wildlife conflicts through community awareness and public education programs, although it would include a response to genuine threats to humans or other animals iii) bring community stakeholder organizations together with appropriate agencies to develop and deliver these programs.
"There is wide support for this initiative from rural and urban communities as seen by recent motions from the city's Rural Issues Advisory Committee, the Environmental Advisory Committee and the Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee, along with numerous letters from residents across the city," according to Ward 5 West Carleton-March councillor, Eli El-Chantiry. "It shows the public concern for protecting wildlife and living in harmony with nature. There is also a need for responsible stewardship as shown by the very unfortunate incident of the young Casselman woman and her dog that were caught in foothold traps recently. This is not what we want in Ottawa."
Sol Shuster, Chair of the Greenbelt Coalition of Canada's Capital Region, a coalition that comprises virtually all the major community and environmental organizations in the region said "we support a fully integrated Wildlife Strategy that brings together community stakeholders with the various government agencies because it recognizes that wildlife do not respect arbitrary political boundaries and the best way to address this is to get all the relevant players to the table".
"There are excellent people resources in this community that can contribute to developing and delivering a model Wildlife Strategy and to do so for the least possible cost to taxpayers. "If we don't do this, we can be assured, with the extensive development underway in this city, to see more negative wildlife stories and more angry residents", said DuBreuil.
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