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It is Ontario's 732 km spine and a window into 25 million years of Ordovician and Silurian prehistory. It’s a hiker's paradise and a rock-climber's fear. It's home to over 100 species of ferns, orchids and eastern North America's oldest trees. Honeymooners still flock to its eastern doorway, Niagara Falls, and over a million more live and work in the cities that continue to march relentlessly towards its fragile ecosystem.
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A warehouse of limestone and lumber, the escarpment has been reshaped by man ever since the first United Empire Loyalists arrived in Niagara over 200 years ago. Back then, the scarp
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Since 1990 UNESCO has recognized the Niagara Escarpment as a "world biosphere reserve". The UN’s stamp serves as a commendation of the province’s foresighted management policy and as a pat on the back to ensure that politicians remain committed to a balance of progress and preservation on this unique cuesta.
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Inevitably, lobby groups and municipalities added their voices. Preservationists wanted to protect all ecosystems through which the escarpment passed. Self-interested local politicians sought inclusion to acquire a provincially-funded conservation budget. Existing landowners urged the government to mind its own business. After everyone was heard from the proposed protection area grew to encompass 5,200 square km — too expensive to purchase and covering too many municipalities to govern effectively.
Almost 90 percent of the escarpment is in private hands, making any effort to buy the escarpment lands impossible. Formed in 1973, the Niagara Escarpment Commission can only serve as an advisory group, with preservation of the world biosphere reserve ensured through government control over planning policies. Still functioning in the new millenium, the NEC must deal with farmers, cottagers, dozens of parks commissions and Ontario Hydro in an effort to manage everything from the use of pesticides on golf courses carved out of the moraine to the flow rate of the rivers tumbling over the scarp face.
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Deforestation: Despite the forceful efforts of preservationists, economic forces have done more to save tree cover on the escarpment. It’s simply
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Urbanization: Until recently, urbanization was not a serious threat to the escarpment. The undulating terrain was too steep or remote. Recently however, upper income residents have emigrated from the cities, seeking the scenic splendour of the escarpment. Despite the world-wide focus that UNESCO provides, escarpment lands have recently been sold in Waterdown, Grimsby and the smaller Credit River communities that lay within commuting distance of Hamilton and Toronto. Strict adherence to zoning laws should be sufficient to protect the escarpment, but political will is often weakened when the tax coffers run low forcing politicians to approve new subdivisions to acquire new homeowner tax revenue.
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Quarrying: The only solution to the carving away of the escarpment and its adjacent moraine lands is to stop the quarrying of aggregate resources. Of course, that's easier said than done. As common as stone and gravel might seem, deposits of quality aggregates are not easy to find. Landscapers like escarpment aggregates because they do not contain clay, shale or sandstone that discolour with age. Only by altering consumer attitudes can we encourage retailers to buy cost competitive, but lower grade, crushed stone from northern Ontario. The province's Ministry of Transportation prefers the escarpment’s high quality aggregates for highway maintenance because they are economically obtained. If Ontario wishes to hold onto its UNESCO commendation, MTO will have to bite the bullet and pay for costlier aggregates from Ohio. The province must continue to prove its commitment to protect the Niagara Escarpment.
