Whitevalemarsh

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...

  We have started a petition to protect the marsh and create a Nature Park on the site, as well as a new parking lot and trailhead off North road for the Seaton trail. Sign our petition on this site  www.change.org/WhitevaleMarsh-Seatontraihead

Check this video of the site on this youtube link posted by Eric Farquharson. It was taken in the fall of 2016.  You will see some ATV tracks left by people in the Spring and Fall but as time passes (we are now in the Fall of 2020), some vegetation gains ground on the bare soil and colonizer plant species appear. People on ATV's find this new landscape less attractive, and their absence allows for a more diverse flora ecosystem to flourish. We will shortly post a recent video showing this progression. Whitevale Gravel Pit

The Whitevale Marsh, West Duffins and the trails along the seasons

On August 3, 2018, our MPP Peter Bethlenfalvy met with us and visited the Whitevale Marsh. He listened to our concerns and saw for himself the reasons why we continue to advocate for the preservation of the former aggregate pit and marsh.

Just today, in the marsh, a snapping turtle resting...  Several species of turtles are at risk or endangered   in Ontario as described in this link  Turtles at risk in Ontario . For more information about the plight of this marsh and our struggle to save it, please refer to the 17/04/2017 and 12/04/2017 posts.

Just a few shots from our fall photo contest, won by Andre Denis (microphotography), Elton Law (the marsh) and Mary Evans (the trail). The irony is that we thought Andre's shot was of a Milkweed pod, an ubiquitous presence in the marsh site, beneficial to the Monarch Butterfly, but that it was in fact a shot of the noxious weed commonly called "Dog Strangling Wine", an invasive species colonizing many locations in Southern Ontario.