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Niagara Falls
Friday, March 29, 2024
Letter to the editor: A lovely tale of geese and nature

SUBMITTED BY RYDER PAYNE, NOTL.
OPINION

Dear editor:

I enjoyed Melanie Morris’s column on the nesting Embden geese at the NOTL Sailing Club, “Sailing club’s Embden geese and the circle of life,” The Lake Report, May 30.

It illustrates another attraction Niagara-on-the-Lake offers to visitors besides heritage, theatre and viniculture: the easy access to a rich variety of wildlife. 

That someone should take the trouble to observe in detail and speculate about the behaviour of a goose in contrast to the negativity expressed about the Canada and cackling geese is definitely a change for the better. Only last year, stories involving wildlife usually had tragic endings, like the shooting of the Embden geese on the Niagara River and the wild turkey on the Common.

Opportunities to observe wildlife can be a major attraction to tourists if properly promoted, something the Chamber of Commerce might keep in mind when hiring its new president.

That is why preserving the Lakeshore lands and retaining the aggregate ponds when the old waste water treatment plant is decommissioned must be given priority.

Of course, there are good environmental reasons for such conservation projects, too. But, even more important, recent research suggests that preserving our wild places where people may walk and relax and observe what’s happening around them enhances both mental and physical health.

That is something everyone might take into consideration when so much wilderness and wetland are under threat.

Ryder Payne

NOTL

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