Conservationists win a round in the fight for the Caledon Badlands

Last summer, Walt asked you to sign a petition to save the Caledon Badlands (aka "Cheltenham Badlands", "Finger Hills" or "The Funny Place") from the depredations of hordes of tourists -- city people from the Little Apple -- who were destroying the natural beauty of the place.

Imagine the four people shown in this picture multiplied by 100 and you'd have an idea of what it was like there of a summer Sunday afternoon. Imagine the amount of litter, for city people always think that someone else is going to clean up their trash. Trouble is, the Town of Caledon is (or was) a rural municipality. Although some of the richest people in southern Ontario live there, they had no money (so they said) to maintain the Badlands. Let someone else -- like the Bruce Trail Association -- look after it.

Strangely, the Town did find money in its budget to pave the road going by the Badlands. And they thought it would be nice to pave over at least a part of paradise and put up a parking lot. (Hello Joni Mitchell! Hope you're getting better.) The petition was an effort to stop further destruction of this unique site/sight.

Walt is delighted to pass on a message received from Alex Mior, who started the petition on Change.org. Alex reports VICTORY! The proposed parking lot has been stopped. But -- here come the weasel words -- the town council has stopped the project "for further review". It's true that can me "put on hold forever", but sometimes bad ideas get resurrected, so Walt advises lovers of the Badlands to NOT relax their vigilance.

There is, however, a further piece of good news. Earlier this month, the town council listened (for once) to the concerns of local residents, environmentalists and conservationists, and decided to put up a big fence along the road, to keep visitors off the "dramatic barren landscape", before it gets even more barren! A look at the photo in the story from the Caledon Enterprise will show you why fencing off the Badlands was long overdue.

Now the question is, should the fence be made permanent? There's already an outcry about denying access to public property. But serious nature lovers and outdoorsy types can still walk through the section of the Bruce Trail that skirts the southern perimeter of the Badlands. Check out the notice in the Bruce Trail News. It's only the city folk who will be shut out.

Further reading: "Caledon’s Cheltenham Badlands temporarily closed", on the Ontario Heritage Trust website. Walt urges you to follow the links at the end of the article to learn more about how you can help conserve the Badlands, and participate in discussions about the future of this beautiful piece of the Ontario landscape.