By Vanessa Stark [1]
BELLEVILLE – The Lower Trent Conservation Authority [2] is looking to expand its boundary. This means all land within the municipality of Trent Hills will be under the jurisdiction of a conservation authority.
When the borders were originally outlined, a portion of the former township of Seymour wasn’t covered under any of the three area conservation authorities.
This is the only area not covered by those three conservation authorities in the municipality: Lower Trent, Crowe River [3], and Otonabee Region [4].
Conservation authorities are in charge of controlling watershed, protecting endangered species, looking after conservation areas as well as flood protection and prevention. They also have education programs and give stewardship advice to the public.
Conservation authorities were originally put into place to monitor flooding because the municipality was seeing property damage and people were being put at risk, Jim Peters, director of planning for the municipality of Trent Hills said.
Map courtesy of Quinte West
Expanding the boundary of the conservation authority is important because the areas that are not within its coverage area do not have access to the programs and services they offer.
“Right now even though when a planning application such as a severance or a re-zoning were to take place… it’s not under their (the CA) jurisdiction. If I wanted to go and have the Lower Trent come along to say where the flood line on a property is or where the boundary of a wetland or something like that, we can’t do that right now.” Peters said, “It’s important because right now we can do it in 90 per cent of the municipality. But we can’t do it in that area, so those citizens don’t have the same access to services as the rest of the people.”
By having these authorities in the area, it will help protect the land and ensurs people in the area are informed on how to stay safe and protect the environment.
“The information they have and the mapping they have developed really help us to protect those natural environment areas. To make sure development is going in an area where it minimizies the impact (on the environment), where developments should be going so those areas can continue to function as natural wetlands,” Peters said.
Expanding the boundary of the Lower Trent Conservation Authority won’t cost people who live or own property any more in taxes.
The final decision to expand will depend on a vote from the surrounding municipalities and the conservation authority board. A meeting will be held on Mar. 8 at the Lower Trent Conservation Administration Office in Quinte West at 6:30 p.m.