Residents protest to save Beeton forest

At Monday night’s committee of the whole meeting, council agreed to ask Simcoe County to suspend a special permit it recently issued to the landowner Maria Rizzardo (Tecumseth Estates Inc.) to allow for the cutting down of 35 acres of mature hardwood trees at the property located at 6386 and 6416 9th Line to expand an existing agricultural area.

This morning (March 3) about 10 residents are at the site to protest the county’s decision. The roadblocks are preventing workers at the site from getting onto the property. Nottawasaga OPP is on the scene directing traffic on the 9th Line.

Beeton Coun. Richard Norcross introduced the motion for council to take action. He has been contacted by a number of residents who are concerned about the environmental repercussions of the tree clearing and the lack of public notification about the work.

“It never came through this council chamber and it should have,” he said. “Since then there have been a lot of questions…because there isn’t a lot of answers, but we need to have those answers.”

The permit to clear the trees at the 241-acre property was granted by Simcoe County council in January. Work to remove the trees began more recently.

The town’s county council representatives, Mayor Rick Milne and Deputy Mayor Jamie Smith, were absent from the meeting due to the town’s budget deliberations and didn’t vote on the decision.

Since the work to clear trees involves more than a hectare of land, jurisdiction falls under Simcoe County’s forest conservation bylaw.

The process to obtain the special permit from the county dates back about three years after the landowner started removing the trees without a permit.

The tree removal work was halted after the county’s bylaw enforcement officer visited the site in January 2012 and issued a stop work order.

According to a report to county council, the area of trees the owner was clearing included butternut trees, a protected species under the Endangered Species Act, prompting the county to notify the Ministry of Natural Resources.

In order to proceed with the tree cutting, the owner had to hire a forestry consultant to develop a plan to protect the endangered trees, which the MNR has accepted.

The Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority also reviewed the plan and issued an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The assessment includes a number of recommendations, including buffers to protect the local creek, and an agreement to remove certain trees at the property and conduct a compensation planting on other areas of the property.

With the tree removal process now underway, the community is urging council to act fast to stop the work.

Dozens of residents showed up to Monday’s meeting to share their concerns with council, including longtime Beeton resident Nicole Cox, whose brother started an online petition to stop the work, which has since garnered over 900 signatures.

She shares many of the same concerns as her fellow residents, from the welfare of the butternut trees, to the loss of habitat for wildlife, to whether the clear cutting could open the door to development at some point down the road.

“At this point in time, to cut down 35 acres of mature forest, that’s not right,” she said.

There is also concern that removing the trees will cause flooding problems along Beeton Creek, putting a number of local bridges at risk, including one near the 9th Line that contains a sewage pipeline.

However, the town’s director of engineering Rick Vatri said the NVCA anticipates the tree clearing to result in a marginal increase of groundwater runoff, which is expected to have a “minimal impact” on the Beeton Creek.

Cox is also questioning why there wasn’t more public consultation.

“We don’t like that it was passed by county council before we had any knowledge of it,” she said.

The town’s director of planning Bruce Hoppe said it’s unclear if the county followed the notification process of letting abutting landowners know about the work ahead of time.

He also said the county council report stating the town has no objections to the work isn’t true.

“That certainly was not the message that we conveyed,” he said.

While the town was circulated on the tree removal permit application, Hoppe said the matter was deferred to the NVCA since town staff doesn’t have their environmental expertise.

As part of the request to have the permit suspended, the town will be asking the county to review the permit approval process to ensure proper protocol was followed and to also hold a public information session before the permit is reconsidered for approval.