Mayor Janice Jackson

The Town of South Bruce Peninsula has been found guilty of destroying the endangered Piping Plover habitat on two occasions that put their survival and recovery at risk by a decision made by Justice of the Peace, Charles Anderson, The ruling shows that the town’s violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and disregard for the endangered birds’ survival, will not be tolerated by Ontario’s courts.

Today’s decision also shows that in April and September of 2017, the town made a clear choice to destroy important shoreline habitat.

Earlier this year, the Ontario government weakened the ESA. However, the charges the town received pre-date the province’s legislative changes, and show that the previous wording of the Act was effective at protecting Ontario’s most vulnerable species.

“We congratulate the enforcement efforts of the staff at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and hope that future dialogue with the Town of South Bruce Peninsula will be productive in protecting the endangered piping plover,” says the Environmental Defence.

About ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

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After a thirty year absence, and decades of important conservation work, endangered Piping Plovers finally returned to Lake Huron’s shores at Sauble Beach in 2007. Since 2015, however, their return has been under threat.

The Town of South Bruce Peninsula has been raking and bulldozing sand dunes in the fall and spring to reduce the natural vegetation on Sauble Beach. These dunes are vital piping plover habitat, and as such are protected by law under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) repeatedly threatened to charge the Town, but consistently failed to act. A fact the Mayor has remarked about publicly.

Legal action under the Endangered Species Act

When we learned that this spring the Town planned to once again take a bulldozer to vegetation and important habitat features, we partnered with Ecojustice and Ontario Nature to ask the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) to ask them again to take action.

Finally, on March 23 this year, the MNRF charged the town under the ESA for the destruction that took place last year. They also issued a Stop Work Order to prevent them conducting these activities again this spring.

UPDATE: The Town has been summoned to appear in court June 23, in Owen Sound. They plan to fight the Endangered Species Act charge, and have submitted paperwork to appeal the stop work order. 

This action by the MNRF is welcome, if overdue. The town has been removing vegetation and compromising plover habitat for years. The municipality’s destruction of these ecosystems even resulted in the loss of Sauble Beach’s Blue Flag status in 2015. Since then the town undertook illegal spring maintenance activities every year, in direct violation of the spring ban on disturbing piping plover habitat.

Is this really what the tourists want?

The sad thing is that this war against piping plovers and their sensitive habitat was all justified in the name of tourism. The town is of the view that tourists don’t want to visit natural beaches with dune systems and vegetation, but this simply does not ring true. Some of the most popular beaches in Ontario, such as Wasaga, Sandbanks, and Grand Bend all have dune systems that attract beach goers and environmentally responsible tourists alike.  Visitors who are able to co-exist with the shoreline ecosystem.

What’s bad for the beach is bad for the town

Destroying the dunes doesn’t just affect the habitat of endangered species. It also leads to greater erosion on the beach, especially when water levels are high as they have been in recent years. Once the dunes are gone they are very slow to recover, and only do so when the water levels fall. In the meantime, homes along the beachfront road are put at risk from driving wind and high waves, affecting residents and cottagers alike.

If the municipality was really interested in preserving the beach as a key tourism attraction, they would stop destroying dune ecosystems that help hold sand in place. Failure to do so will lead to the long term degradation of the shoreline and decreased tourism activity – exactly what they claim to want to avoid.

While charges under the ESA and the stop work order are positive and important steps, they are not a long term solution. Now citizens, the MNRF and the Town of South Bruce Peninsula need to develop and implement a beach maintenance plan that includes protecting dune ecosystems, supporting endangered species habitat, and managing the beach for long-term sustainability. It has been done elsewhere along Lake Huron, and it can be done at Sauble Beach.

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Sauble Beach after the town used a bulldozer to remove thick vegetation at north end of beach in August, Photo was shared by South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson on her Facebook page.

The Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry has charged South Bruce Peninsula for allegedly damaging piping plover habitat last April and issued a stop order against any further town-sanctioned beach maintenance this spring.

Mayor Janice Jackson said the municipality has now called off its plan to cultivate the beach “until further notice” and will fight the charge in court.

“We essentially can’t do anything more than pick up garbage on the beach for an indefinite period of time,” she said Wednesday.

“This could take two to three years to resolve in court. So that stop work order, unless we can get some immediate relief, we will not be maintaining that beach for several years, which will cause insurmountable damage.”

The ministry’s actions are “incredibly frustrating,” she said, because the town has tried for years to hammer out a plan with the MNRF, that is satisfactory to both sides, for maintaining the sandy shoreline. But she said the ministry has refused to come to the table.

“The charges and the stop work order was a clumsy and expensive way to communicate with us,” she said.

The MNRF says it issued the stop order last week against the town “to ensure ongoing protection of the piping plover,” which has been nesting annually at Sauble since 2007.

The ministry has said the ban on spring raking is in place to maintain important habitat features for the endangered shorebird.

Owen Sound Field Naturalists president Kate McLaren said “it sounds like the MNRF is doing the right thing” by issuing the stop work order.

The 300-member group put out an “urgent” call to action in mid-March that asked people to e-mail municipal and provincial officials in an effort to prevent the work. The group said tilling the beach would put the shorebirds and long-term health of Sauble in peril.

Last April, South Bruce Peninsula tilled the town-owned beach between the water’s edge and 30 feet west of the dunes, as per its beach maintenance policy. Jackson said north Sauble Beach had become overgrown with weeds, roots and other vegetation.

The ministry received a complaint and launched an investigation into allegations that the work disrupted plover habitat.

Jackson said the ministry threatened to fine the town up to $300,000.

The town cultivated the sand again in August and had planned to do the same this spring before the plovers arrive to prevent regrowth.

However, the MNRF issued the stop order against the town regarding any beach maintenance activities planned for this spring, spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski said.

The ministry filed a charge March 23 under the Endangered Species Act against South Bruce Peninsula “as it relates to activities on Sauble Beach” that took place last spring.

The charge, filed in Provincial Offences court in Owen Sound, alleges the town violated, on or about April 13, 2017, the section that prohibits people from damaging or destroying the habitat of an endangered or threatened species on the Species at Risk in Ontario list. The piping plover is mentioned in the charge.

South Bruce Peninsula received a summons to appear in court June 23.

Kowalski said the ministry has also launched an investigation into the town’s beach maintenance activities from last fall.

South Bruce Peninsula said in a news release that it’s “surprised and disappointed” by the summons and stop order.

It had been consulting “with another branch of the ministry,” as it works to develop an annual beach maintenance plan, the release said. The draft includes provisions to “enhance and preserve the dune ecosystem and provide protection to the piping plover and its habitat.”

The town says it is interested in working with the ministry “to develop practical and successful approaches to support recovery of the piping plover, maintain appropriate habitat and balance human activity on an 11-kilometre beach that draws more than 800,000 visitors every year.”

Jackson said it’s her hope that, by defending itself against the MNRF charge, the court will rule in its favour and outline what the municipality can and can’t do to maintain the beach. That information could then be used to develop a plan to regularly maintain the beach without fear of fines from the ministry.

“As much as going this route is going to be expensive for our town, it’s the only option that we have to make our case and then move forward with a practical beach management plan,” she said.

Jackson has said it was her hope that the town and MNRF could come to an agreement, in writing, that allows the town to cultivate the beach before the plovers arrive and after they leave and rake the sand – a safe distance from any plover nests – throughout the summer.

Jackson said no beach maintenance was done at Sauble from 2010 to 2014.

After the 2014 municipal election, she said the town and MNRF worked out a verbal agreement that would allow South Bruce Peninsula to till the beach before the piping plovers arrive at Sauble in mid-April and after the chicks fledge in mid-August, but not between those times. But she said the MNRF refused to put anything in writing.

The town tilled the beach in 2015 and 2016.

Jackson said the town did a considerable amount of work last August to remove overgrown weeds in the sand. She said it is “imperative” that the town remove the roots soon.

She said after that work is done, the town would likely only have to rake the beach twice a year to maintain it.

Not keeping the sand “clean,” she said, harms tourism and, in turn, Sauble Beach’s economy.
Jackson said the town does not believe it has ever harmed piping plover habitat and maintains that the shorebirds actually prefer to nest on a clean beach.

She said in the same season that the town bulldozed the beach in April, seven plover chicks fledged, making it one of the most successful years for the species’ recovery program at Sauble.

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