A large provincially significant wetland in Ottawa’s rural west end has lost its status after a property owner cleared brush and trees.
From David Manchester Road, just north of a toy store and a tractor retailer, one can see logs piled and vegetation starting to grow back. The owner was fined and now has a remediation agreement with the conservation authority.
But it wasn’t the cutting in 2021 that led to the 41.5-hectare wetland losing protections, so much as the way the wetland was reopened for evaluation under the Ontario government’s updated and controversial points system.
This area of swamp and marsh, located just southwest of the junction of highways 7 and 417, used to enjoy top-level provincial protection and was part of the sprawling Goulbourn wetland complex west of Stittsville. Using the new scorecard, however, a certified wetland evaluator gave it 558 of the required 600 points.
The evaluator hired by the property owner had followed the updated Ontario manual for evaluating wetlands, which took effect in January 2023, the City of Ottawa told CBC News. The city received the 76-page report and took the extra step of looking over the results, but found only minor errors.
The key issue for this particular wetland on David Manchester Road was that under the updated scorecard, it was evaluated on its own. It could no longer be studied as part of a group, or complex, with other wetlands nearby.
It represents the biggest wetland of the 55 hectares that the City of Ottawa has so far had to rezone because they no longer meet the bar set by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Area left to regrow
Land registry records show Harmesh and Ram Dayal Chander bought a rectangular property of nearly 10 hectares on David Manchester Road in 2018. The property was about 75 per cent wetland, according to a 2016 wetland evaluation.
A 2023 update pegged it at about 60 per cent, and found a total of 2.67 hectares of wetland habitat had been cleared in 2021.
CBC News tried several times to reach the Chanders to hear their perspective on what happened, but did not receive a response.
Satellite images of the area on the city’s mapping tool show the property covered with greenery in 2021, but partially stripped by 2022. A court document says the offence took place in September 2021.
Altering or developing a provincially significant wetland isn’t allowed, and the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) had its own regulations, so the cutting drew its attention.
The MVCA needed the owners to hire a professional evaluator to determine the outline of the wetland, to understand where the land should be put right again.
The whole 41.5-hectare wetland ended up being re-scored, however, using the updated points system. The re-evaluation included areas on neighbouring properties beyond the owner’s own section of the wetland, and the entire wetland lost its provincially significant status.
According to a court document, Harmesh Chander was fined $1,125 in July 2024. The owners have agreed to a remediation plan with the conservation authority and are not to interfere with vegetation in a regrowth zone.
First re-evaluation with updated scorecard
It is the first example of a wetland to lose its provincially significant designation in the Mississippi River watershed under the updated Ontario wetland evaluation system, said Matt Craig, manager of planning and regulation at the conservation authority.
“It’s hard to predict what’s going to happen,” said Craig, about whether any other wetland re-evaluations might take place southwest of Ottawa.
“The important thing is that the wetland is still regulated and requires permission from the authority to work within the wetland and the adjacent lands.”
Most of the time, the conservation authority works with private owners of wetlands about the constraints that exist on their properties, Craig said.
There’s a lot of public interest in wetlands, he added, and many rural landowners are aware they help prevent erosion and flooding, while improving groundwater quality.