Check this poster on the trail: it is advertising our Marsh Petition. Many hikers are walking on the Seaton trail, and many more have discovered it during the pandemic. The parking lots at the Whitevale Community Park and  the Green River trailheads are overflowing and many people park on the streets of Whitevale and on both sides of Highway 7. People need the outdoors, the exercise, the fresh air, the experience of spotting wildlife and seeing the change of seasons, now more than ever. 

These hikers do not know that the Whitevale Marsh and regenerating gravel pit are threatened by the future Seaton development. This area, on the east side of the trail, just north of Whitevale will be offered for sale to developers. Being the site of a former gravel pit, it has a unique topography with cliffs, ridges and valleys occupied by marshes and sand barrens. It has woodlots attracting a wide range of bird species and beautiful meadows, rich in milkweed plants, the preferred food of the monarch butterfly caterpillar. 

Our first ask (see our early posts) was to protect the area of the marsh as a minimum, but we are now asking for the whole area (37 acres) to be preserved. 

These 37 acres should be protected as a nature park, with a new trailhead and parking lot off North road, to be enjoyed by the community. Paving it to build a subdivision would be an irreparable loss.

We are meeting with regional councillor David Pickles (dpickles@pickering.ca), Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan (dryan@pickering.ca) and our MPP Peter Bethlenfalvy (peter.bethlenfalvyco@pc.ola.org) to enlist their support for this project.

Show your support by emailing them and sign our petition by scanning the code on our poster above.

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