Friends of the woodlot want buffer enforced

Woodlot Demonstrators

As cars whiz by on Route 101 to New Maryland, Mark D’Arcy and about a dozen other people with Friends of the UNB Woodlot stand of the side of the road and appeal to drivers for supportive horn honks.

Some are holding shovels and hammers, and others signs that read “killing beaver? UNBelievable”, “80 m” and “UNB needs climate change.”

On this day, D’Arcy and the Friends of the UNB Woodlot are fencing off an 80 meter buffer around the Corbett Brook Marsh on the University of New Brunswick’s 3, 800 acre woodlot of forested wetlands.

D’Arcy says the UNB Board of Governors promised in 2004 that no development would occur within an 80 meter radius of any wetland on the property, and any development that would sprout  up there would  a sustainable.

But recent plans to build a Costco and gas bar near the marsh are contrary to that promise.

“The proposed plan for Costco, it’s within 30 meters of Corbett Brook Marsh,” said D’Arcy.  “And then there’s development plan for the gas bar directly over top of ground water.”

The woodlot has gone through a transformation in recent years, and is now home to restaurants and big box stores like Home Depot and Dollarama.

The continual development includes the aforementioned Costco and gas bar, which are expected to set up shop there in 2010.

Representatives for UNB wouldn’t comment on said 80 meter buffer, but Barbara Nicholson, Capital Planning & Property Development for the school, has publicly stated that documents outlining the buffer do exist and that the buffer was agreed upon at a board of governors meeting in the past.

She went on to say that since then, the plans for the Costco development and gas bar have already been ratified and there’s nothing the school can do about it.

Andrea Allison, a social work student at St. Thomas University, said she hopes the government will step in and protect the area from environmentally harmful development, such as the gas bar.

Mark D'Arcy

“We’re pretty sure the public doesn’t know about this,” she said. “Students, alumni that pay money to the school don’t know this. I’ve learned that environmentally sensitive areas aren’t just to protect the animals and creatures that live in it, it’s also to protect us and our water, and that area, where the gas bar is being built  is on top of ground water, which is in our water system.”

She said she believes developing the land is financially motivated, and is being done with disregard for the future harm it may cause.

D’Arcy said he’s considered taking legal recourse to halt any further environmentally harmful development at the woodlot.

He wants moratorium which would stop development dead in its tracks– and a comprehensive review of the environmental impact a gas bar and another big box store would have on the area.

“We’ve just started,” he said. “We’ve only begun. Once I latch into an issue, I’m not going to give it up, and we’re getting more and more support every year.”

Short URL: http://www.newbrunswickbeacon.ca/?p=2580

Posted by Jamie Ross on Nov 4, 2009. Filed under News, This Week's Edition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.