This site is designed to provide up-to-date information on the effort to preserve the Pointe Louise Coastal Wetlands.
The Pointe Louise Coastal Wetlands are a provincially recognized wetland ecosystem sitting at the very mouth of the St. Mary's River, consisting of marsh, bogs and fens, a number of streams and waterways, a large water channel, and a shallow bay that drains directly into the St. Mary's. The area provides habitat to a visibly active community of animals, fish and birds - including white-tailed deer, black bears, pileated woodpeckers, great blue herons, damselflies, perch, and a number of very industrious beavers.
In recent weeks, a proposal to develop a subdivision of 91 "estates" was presented to the residents of Pointe Louise at an "open house" arranged by the developers. The plan as it exists would effectively destroy the current wetland ecosystem and hydrology, replacing it with a man-made network of dead-end canals lined with "estate" properties. It require not only the wholesale excavation of the wetland area, it would also involve the destruction of a long-standing bridge and the rerouting and dead-ending of several existing city roads. The result would be to sever one half of this decades-old community from the other, transforming what has long been a casual stroll to visit friends and neighbours on the other side into a several-mile drive.
The proposal was presented to the residents of Point Louise in an abrupt manner absent any consultation. As has since become apparent, it has also been designed without understanding or consideration of the severely negative consequences that the proposed development would have on the hydrology, ecology, wildlife, aesthetic beauty, and long-term quality of life of the community. Given a closer look, the plan - which would seem to attempt to duplicate a Southern Florida beach development in Northern Ontario - seems divorced from any real sense of practicality.
The proposal to turn inland forest and bogs into riverside property is not only suspicious on its face - it has also been tried before and failed. A canal was attempted decades ago at Pointe Louise. The result was a dead-end trench, affectionately referred to as "The Alagash". It now provides wetland habitat to numerous bird, animal and fish species, but from the perspective of those who thought they would have beach frontage and river access, it resulted in a stagnant shallow ditch in which the water does not flow and is coloured a brown-green from sediment and algae. Slicks of motor oil can often be seen floating along its banks. While the local children enjoy fishing near the bridge where it touches the bay, boating on it is non-existent and swimming in it is largely unthinkable.
The attempt to recreate the waterfront property that beach-side residents enjoy by coverting a broad swath of wetland bogs and fens into a boaters' playground is likely to simply replicate this earlier attempt on greater and more damaging scale. With no outlet for the water on one end and no source of circulation or water recharge, it will be The Alagash all over again, but 20 times larger and more destructive. Polluted with motor oil and lawn runoff, it will be a source of contamination not just for its own muddy shores, but also for the shallow bay it connects to and, from there, the St. Mary's River.
What once was a productive wetland habitat that cleaned and filtered water draining into the St. Mary's and seeping down to recharge underground aquifers with drinking water will likely become a network of wide polluted ditches, unsuitable for swimming certainly. And given the tendency of sediment to form deltas and the lack of any foreplanning for dredging and maintanence, the canals will likely prove inconvenient and unnattractive for the boating that supposedly justifies its construction. Pointe Louise will be left with a double blow - the destruction of its wetlands and the construction of a super-Alagash. The end result would be a permanent and destabilizing blight on what was once a strong and peaceful community - one that is rustic and lively, wild but beautiful.
What the developers of "The Pointe Estates" seem to promise is that Pointe Louise could somehow become South Florida. Leaving aside the question of whether anyone actually considers this desirable, the actual result is bound to be something else entirely. Overtime, their promises (as with most salesmen) are bound to be unfulfilled. In their place will be left an anachronistic and destructive eyesore, unattractive to the new residents the developers are supposedly wooing and ill-fitted to the existing community. The proposal in its current form will impoverish Point Louise, not enrich it.
More to the point, the development is out of line with the stated interests and regulatory guidelines of both Sault Ste. Marie and the province of Ontario, which have drawn up plans and recommendations to clean and protect the Great Lakes and their coastal wetlands.
Pointe Louise is one of only three provicially recognized coastal wetlands on the upper St. Mary's River (the others are Mark's Bay and Carpin Beach). This is not that surprising, considering that the lion's share of the river's waterfront, like that in many cities, was long ago sacrificed to industry and development before our communities were aware of the environmental and ecological significance (and potential profitability) of these areas. Sault Ste. Marie is well acquainted with this dilemma given its struggle to make its riverfront a unique selling point that will draw people to the Soo while confronting the reality that it long ago traded in that riverfront's natural richness for development. This decision was made gradually but without real knowledge of the consequences, at a time when environmental concerns and appeals did not loom as large. We now know better than to rashly plow under areas of natural beauty and environmental importance. We have learned from our mistakes the hard way, and it is time to put those lessons into practice.
According to Ontario's Natural Heritage Map, the full importance and biological diversity of the Pointe Louise Coastal Wetlands have yet to be fully evaluated by the province - a step that should certainly be taken before any bulldozer is given permission to plow them under. Nevertheless, they have been recognized to be significant enough to warrant special status. In addition, the city's own guidelines and those of the Conservation Authority clearly state that wetland habitat is to be conserved and any impact on related wildlife habitat and existing human communities are to be taken strongly into consideration. With respect to the latter, the role of the wetlands in maintaining water quality and recharging underground aquifers is of specific concern, since all of the residents of Pointe Louise get their water from underground wells.
Clearly, there are many considerations to be explored and evaluated aside from the desire to build a hugely ambitious development that looks increasingly like a pipe-dream. Long-past are the days when our society blithely ignored environmental considerations in order to accomodate development for development's sake. We now know that our lands and our communities function as integrated systems, and the health of the natural environment and its positive interaction with a community's growth is key to the long-term health and survival of not only our ecosystems, but of the community as well.
Pointe Louise is attractive to homeowners and generations of families precisely because of its rustic character, dramatic rural setting, and rich nature and wildlife. It is these very qualities that have helped build a quality community of career professionals, business owners, doctors, teachers, expatriates from Southern Ontario, and even a professional hockey player or two, along with their children and grandchildren. Sacrificing these characteristics to attempt to create a development with no basis in the community or the geography of the Pointe seems foolish at best.
We now recognize that those who counsel development at all costs are promoting an out-of-date attitude, better suited to the last century. As should be expected, the primary interest in these cases is most often present gain - not the long-term health and sustainability of the community at large. But the forward-thinkers will recognize that what we need is not so much "more" as it is "better". Quality - not quantity - is what will enrich and anchor our communities.
Pointe Louise is a case in point. This is a community offering some of the highest quality of life in Sault Ste. Marie. To threaten that quality in order to pursue an ill-considered experiment in land reengineering for private profit would be a fool's bargain, especially when failure seems the likeliest option and a host of unintended and unforseen consequences are sure to follow. It is a great cost to ask a community to bear for little or no gain. There are many ways to promote "improvement". Most of these do not involve constructing a "P-Patch" type development around polluted canals in exchange for the loss of clean water, wetland habitat and quality of life.
As the "Pointe Estates" proposal makes its way through the process of being considered and eventually approved, redesigned or rejected, this site will attempt to act as a reference source and clearinghouse, providing relevant information on the environment, history and community of Pointe Louise and the Pointe Louise Coastal Wetlands, as well as the legal, environmental and social implications of the proposed "Pointe Estates" development.
