Red-spotted Purple

On Sunday August 11th at 2pm, The Restore Cootes campaign will propose a vision for Dundas and Hamilton to enhance and restore natural areas on the periphery of Cootes Paradise degraded or lost to development.

“Cootes Paradise is at the heart of the city’s ecological recovery,” suggests Restore Cootes’ founder Randy Kay. “There’s so much potential for rehabilitation in places like McMaster’s west campus parking lots, which up until the 1960s functioned as a floodplain for lower Ancaster Creek where it empties into Cootes Paradise.”

This talk will explore issues relating to McMaster’s Lot M, which include the founding of McMaster University in Hamilton, the relationship between McMaster and the Royal Botanical Gardens’ properties, and will touch on Cootes Drive, electric railways, pioneer cemeteries, lost ponds, and “ghost” trails, the Parking or Paradise campaign and restoration along the Desjardins Canal.

The lecture will be co-presented by Randy Kay and Dr Jim Quinn, professor of biology at McMaster University and longtime environmental activist and conservationist. It will take place in the Urquhart Butterfly Garden, rain or shine.

For more information about the Restore Cootes campaign, visit restorecootes.blogspot.ca.