Niagara at Large, Published October 8, 2021
The Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games (CSG) is building a brand-new mountain bike racecourse, which is resulting in significant environmental destruction of the Twelve Mile Creek woodland and watershed. ….This new mountain bike racecourse and playground trails are being developed right now and built without any oversight of environmental authorities.” – Friends of Twelve Mile Creek
A Message and a Petition for You to Consider Signing from Friends of Twelve Mile Creek, a citizens-based group in Niagara, Ontario
The Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games (CSG) is building a brand-new mountain bike racecourse, which is resulting in significant environmental destruction of the Twelve Mile Creek woodland and watershed.
The contractor, the Niagara Trail Maintenance Association (NTMA), has been executing the CSG mission for this new mountain bike “racecourse” since the beginning of August 2021. This Twelve Mile Creek watershed of forest, natural vegetation, creeks, valleys, wetlands, steep hills, ridges, and wildlife habitats are being cut, removed, excavated, dug, disrupted, and permanently altered.
The surrounding Niagara community are extremely disturbed and believe this mountain bike racecourse is totally inappropriate to be built in a fragile ecosystem, on already erosion prone ravine slopes, and adjacent to residential property lines.
Since the initial game bid in 2016, the mountain bike course was to be prepared using existing mountain bike trails on Brock University lands where there is suitable sport infrastructure, facilities, parking, and decades precedent of mountain biking riding.
The terrain and existing trails of Brock University lands were the ideal location for the mountain bike course and competition. We are strong supporters of the CSG, and of the original bid location, or a viable alternative racecourse, but not the recent change of venue that will destroy one of the last natural and undisturbed greenbelt areas of St. Catharines.
This new mountain bike racecourse and playground trails are being developed right now and built without any oversight of environmental authorities, or the City of St. Catharines. Similarly, there is no oversight by the landowner (Ontario Power Generation), nor cycling stakeholders such as the cycling community of Niagara, Cycling Canada or Ontario Cycling Association. In other words, there is no formal supervision of any kind.
The CSG and Ontario Power Generation have misled the community regarding the construction of this new mountain bike racecourse. The CSG chair, Doug Hamilton stated in a minimally distributed letter that there would be “upgrades of safety and other minor improvements to the trail system”. Ontario Power Generation stated in response to our community concerns that “the games are permitted to make improvements to existing trails to improve safety for cyclists and recreational users.”
The current reality is that the NTMA, contracted and funded by the CSG, is continuing their mission unabated, excavating the ravine, cutting vegetation, building bridges, shovelling out berms and building up embankments to create a brand-new racecourse.
If the build continues, inevitably, this natural ravine will be destroyed. Additional mountain bike playground trails are likely to be continually cut into previously untouched ravine areas.
The steep slopes of the Twelve Mile Creek ravine are fragile, covered in dense vegetation and mature forest, forming an important wildlife habitat. In addition, these ravine slopes have a history of instability with slope degradation and collapse.
This new trail development is not necessary and poses a very real threat to the environment and to residents of the areas bordering the Twelve Mile Creek. If this destruction is not stopped now, it will be too late.
We are community members, residents, athletes, sporting enthusiasts, experts and scholars, and we support the CSG as being good for Niagara overall. However, we are passionately opposed to the destruction of the Twelve Mile Creek woodland and watershed. We are opposed to the repurposing of this natural area for mountain bike racing.
Alternative action is possible, but we must act now! There is still a viable alternative to the current destruction happening in Twelve Mile Creek ravine.
There are multiple trail networks in Niagara that have decades of mountain biking history and a precedent of riding, racing and coexisting with other trail users. Therefore, the mountain bike racecourse for the CSG and its legacy need not be destructive to the environment, wildlife habitat and the well being of the local community. There is a better way.
Time to “Change Course” and do the right thing; protect our environment and have a proper strategic and sustainable legacy plan that will allow for an all-inclusive cycling for life practice to the Niagara residents and visitors.
Friends of Twelve Mile Creek says preparation is beyond ‘minor’ and a racecourse for high-performance athletes is being carved into the natural environment. The Friends of Twelve Mile Creek wrote a letter following their presentation to the NPCA board, asking NPCA to reconsider allowing the permit. “Let’s set an example in reinforcing that conservation, preservation and restoration are essential to urban ravine survival, especially in these times of climate change,” the letter said.
The Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games (CSG) is building a brand-new mountain bike racecourse, which is resulting in significant environmental destruction of the Twelve Mile Creek woodland and watershed. ….This new mountain bike racecourse and playground trails are being developed right now and built without any oversight of environmental authorities.”
A Commentary on Plans to Construct a Mountain Bike Racecourse for the 2022 Canada Summer Games in the Riverview ravine portion of the Twelve Mile Creek valley in St. Catharines, Ontario.
This is not a protest against the Games or a campaign against mountain biking. Our opposition is about the location and the destruction of more natural habitats for the purpose of having more trails in an urban setting where there are already plenty existing ones established.
The St. Catharines Environmental Alliance (SEA) was first availed of this highly controversial issue in the late summer of 2021 when reports circulated about residents of Riverview Blvd. bailing from their pools, salamanders that had been displaced by mid-slope construction along the creek. That was followed by posts from decorated cyclist Steve Bauer regarding ‘significant environmental destruction of the Twelve Mile Creek woodland and watershed’ the result of a new mountain bike racecourse for the Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games.
To read this article as it was published online, click here