SYDNEY, N.S. — A group of concerned citizens who are trying to save an urban nature trail is raising money so it can get a second opinion on the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s flood prevention plans.
Save the Baille Ard Forest recently started a crowdfunding campaign with the goal of raising $5,000. Founder Wayne McKay said they’ll use that money to hire a consultant who can review the flood mitigation measures engineers from CBCL Ltd. devised for the CBRM.
“We want to get someone to look at the plan that’s been created and give us another interpretation of it and see if there’s any other alternative to what’s been proposed,” he said. “It’s our understanding that there are some other ways of dealing with flood mitigation and some other possibilities. We also are not sure that the value of the Baille Ard Trail was taken into consideration when the original modelling was done, so we want to see what happens if we put that into the equation.”
Since starting a Facebook group in late October, Save the Baille Ard Forest has grown to more than 2,000 members. Many of them regularly post photos and messages explaining how much the four kilometres of trails and 70 acres of woodland means to them.
More than 400 people recently attended a public walk calling on CBRM councillors to reconsider a plan they approved that could see a series of berms — eight feet high, 50 feet wide and between 300 and 400 metres long — to be built in the woods behind Sherwood Park Education Centre.
McKay said they’ve since formed a 10-person committee that will organize another walking event, possibly for Nov. 30, although he said that date is “very tentative.”
McKay said they will also reach out to each councillor and invite them to meet with members of his group and the Baille Ard Recreation Association.
“We’re not inviting the public to this — we want the council members to come and have a personal tour with a couple of members from the Baille Ard Recreation Association so they can get the full picture of the trail and also the history of the trail and why it’s important to the community and those sorts of things. We’re hoping the councillors will take us up on that offer.”
In turn, his group will submit a request to make a presentation at an upcoming CBRM council meeting.
McKay said it’s all about trying to find ways to stop water from flooding homes, businesses, a church and a school downstream without destroying the Baille Ard Trail.
“We’re trying to educate and tell a fuller story, so I don’t see it as a dismissing of the report CBCL has done — I see it as a reading with different eyes,” he said
“We’re 100 per cent supportive of flood mitigation and trying to protect the assets downstream and we’ve been trying to be very clear about that. We’re not saying Baille over other things, we’re saying Baille Ard and other things.”
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