Hanlon Creek ecosystems have been devastated

Re:

Thank you to Rob O’Flanagan for writing in the Feb. 12 edition about the ongoing destruction of the natural habitats and ecosystems at the Hanlon Creek Business Park and the broken promises of our elected officials.

I have not been on the property since the No Trespassing signs appeared, but I have memories of the beauty of the land that I saw with the tours given by the occupiers — woodlands with hemlock and black cherry trees a metre in diameter towering over us.

On either side of a Hanlon Creek tributary I saw the stumps of more than 75 cedars, some close to 100 years old that had been providing shade for a tributary that is now enclosed in a pipe. How long will it remain a cold water stream and a habitat for trout?

Seeing red over the business park’s green promises

Rob O‘Flanagan, Guelph Mercury

February 12, 2011

In the first days of the Hanlon Creek Business Park occupation of the summer of 2009, I often walked up a farm access road on the east side of the property in order to get a clandestine look at the protesters’ encampment. It was off Hazelwood Drive.

A tall stand of evergreens and other trees lined both sides of the laneway, providing good cover for anyone with a large telephoto lens who wanted to see deep into the property – to gauge what new structures and dwellings the activists had put up, what new blockades had been erected.

I drove down Hazelwood Drive this week and was temporarily disoriented. The access road and its trees were obliterated. Not a trace of it was left. I had trouble recalling what it actually looked like or identifying the place where it had stood.

Contract Stage 1 Phase 3

Regional Sewer and Watermain, a Cambridge company, has submitted the lowest bid for the Stage 1 Phase 3  contract of the Hanlon Creek Business Park. This contract includes, amongst other things, construction of asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks,  installation of storm and sanitary sewers, striping and stockpiling of topsoil and abandoning the public and private wells found on site.

This video was shot at a Regional Sewer and Watermain job site in Cambridge. The concerned resident has a number of choice words for the operator of the excavator.

Civil Disobedience at Capital Paving Quarry

 

Some of the protesters and their barrel blocking a line of trucks.

This morning, about a dozen friends of the hanlon creek blocked the drive way of the Capital Paving Quarry located near the intersection County Road 34 and the Hanlon Expressway. We used a lock down device to secure a protester to an oil drum filled with concrete and positioned it in the center of the driveway. We chose that location because Capital Paving is involved in the development of the Hanlon Creek Wetland Complex and quarries are both the literal and figurative foundation of development.

Photos from the Hanlon Creek

A photo taken on July 27, 2009 on the first morning of the occupation.

Hanlon Creek Wetland Complex, July 27, 2009

A photo taken from the same place, one year later on July 27, 2010.

Hanlon Creek Wetland Complex, July 27, 2010

And a third, taken from the same area just a few days ago.

Hanlon Creek Wetland Complex, September 21, 2010

Quite a change.

Development at Karen Farbridge’s Home

Video from the development of Karen Farbridge’s front yard.

Guelph Mayors house scheduled for development by protesters!

an e mail that we just received:
Guelph Mayors house scheduled for development by protesters!
On Tuesday June 8th 2010, Friends Of Hanlon Creek went to Mayor Karen Farbridge’s house and delivered the following note:

NOTICE OF DEVELOPMENT

We have come here today to inform you that this land is scheduled for immediate development. Our Scientific survey shows that there are no endangered Karen Farbridges within this habitat.Our survey was conducted during prime human migratory hours 9am-3pm. As such, we will continue as scheduled immediately

D-rexler construction company.

An Open Letter: Why the Jefferson Salamander isn’t the end all to the issue of the proposed HCBP:

An Open Letter:

Why the Jefferson Salamander isn’t the end all to the issue of the proposed HCBP:

We recently found out that the city’s monitoring of the Jefferson did not find any confirmation that the Jefferson Salamander lives at the Hanlon Creek Wetland Complex. (Other than the hybrid found about a year ago). But we also know that, had the Jefferson been found, the City was attempting to apply for an exemption to the Endangered Species Act anyway, to be allowed to kill some in order to continue development. So it seems that we have come to the end of the road in terms of how the Jefferson Salamander can stop this development. But, there is one thing I want to make clear: This does not, in anyway, mean that this is a ‘green’ and ecologically sound development. All of the major environmental issues remain the same: causing destruction to the Paris-Galt Moraine, harming tributary A of the Hanlon Creek, (here-forth known as ‘Freedom Tributary’), killing thousands of animals, destroying their habitat, completely disregarding international treaties with Six Nations,  and causing great harm to this beautiful old diverse forest, one of the last of its kind in Southern Ontario.

Shut Down Carson Reid’s Office

Editors Note: this protest has ended

Just minutes ago, A group of individuals set out to the head offices of Carson Reid’s to halt work. If you would like to support this action please come down to Carson Reid’s Office, located at 183 Dufferin St. in Guelph.

Click on the address for a google map of the location

Come support the resistance to sprawl in Guelph and Southern Ontario

Over the last decade a variety of organizations and individual citizens have clearly outlined why development of the Hanlon Creek Wetland Complex (HCWC) simply cannot be allowed. Environmental impacts of developing in an area as significant as this cannot be ignored or green washed. Indigenous treaty rights cannot be disregarded and public outcry must be heard and respected.

May 7 Day of Action to Protect Hanlon Creek

At the April 29th speaking event in Guelph presenters announced plans for a May 7 day of action to protect the Hanlon Creek. Everyone is invited to the parking lot of the Guelph Youth Music Center at 9:30 AM on Friday May 7. Once everyone arrives we will distribute flyers about the role Carson Reid plays in the development of the business park, and then spread out to deliver those flyers to people’s door steps.

If you don’t like flyering, do something else. Anything else. Make a banner, or write a letter to the editor, or call the mayor and tell her what you think. Just do something!