Save our forest!

Metrus, a large development company, is trying to use a 28-year-old planning approval for a mobile home park to turn a large piece of the North Gwillumbury Forest into a subdivision. The forest that would be destroyed by Metrus' development contains provincially significant wetlands and is part of one of the ten largest remaining forest areas in the Lake Simcoe watershed.

The proposed development would cut off wildlife movement and fragment an important forested area in the already stressed Lake Simcoe Watershed. It is contrary to the spirit of the Lake Simcoe Protection Act and the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan,which seeks to protect remaining natural habitat in order to protect the lake's water quality and wildlife.

Development within the Paradise Beach – Island Grove provincially significant wetland would also run directly contrary to the Provincial Policy Statement, which says:

2.1.3 Development and site alteration shall not be permitted in:

a) significant habitat of endangered species and threatened species;
b) significant wetlands in Ecoregions 5E, 6E and 7E1; and
c) significant coastal wetlands

The North Gwillimbury Forest is within Ecoregion 6E.

This is not the place for a subdivision. Tell Metrus that it should take its development somewhere else!

What Metrus is proposing versus what was approved 28 years ago.

Help spread the word!

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The North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance is a member of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition

News:

Trees keep us healthy - new report outlines tremendous health benefits of trees and forests.

Why and how the MLE development can be stopped. Letter to Georgina Mayor Robert Grossi, Feb. 9, 2012

Order copies of our new pamphlet to distribute to your friends and neighbours!

Development can be stopped - Letter to the Georgina Advocate, Jan. 27, 2012

Metrus development far from a done deal - Letter to the Pefferlaw Post, Jan. 16, 2012

South Lake Simcoe Naturalists endorse call for forest protection

Alliance for a Better Georgina opposes MLE development

View Save the North Gwillimbury Forest! in a larger map

The North Gwillimbury Forest includes the York Regional Forest and the Arnold C. Matthews Nature Reserve. The Reserve will be cut off from the rest of the forest by Metrus' proposed Maple Leaf Estates.