From summer student to chief administrative officer, Deborah Martin-Downs completes the circle

Mississauga Information columnist John Stewart.

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“It’s not simply one thing you do as a job, it’s one thing you do.”

Deborah Martin-Downs is not going to cease being an environmentalist simply because she retired as chief administrative officer of Credit score Valley Conservation (CVC) on Dec. 31, after eight years main the watershed regulating company by way of troublesome occasions that included extreme flooding, eroding funding and a brand new world of planning by MZO the place a huge Amazon warehouse was nearly plopped on a provincially-significant wetland, with Ontario’s encouragement.

Martin-Downs subsequently resigned from Ontario’s Greenbelt Council, together with Chair David Crombie and 5 others in protest of provincial laws that strips authorities of conventional regulatory management that has saved buildings out of floodplains.

“Nobody was listening” she mentioned on the time.

Conservation authorities, distinctive to Ontario, ought to be far-sighted creatures ignoring parochial political boundaries to safeguard the well being of complete watersheds and their populations.

Martin-Downs remembers when the Don River ran pink, inexperienced and blue relying on which dyes have been being dumped in it.

As a grasp’s scholar in 1982, she studied fish populations in Caledon’s very polluted Black Creek, the place brook trout now thrive.

Three a long time later, she took on the sophisticated process of main the identical group she labored for as a summer season scholar, guarding the river towards air pollution, invading species, infringing growth and threatening local weather change.

She’s pleased with quite a few initiatives however none greater than the launch of Credit score Valley Path.

“Finally I hope I can take my walker or wheelchair and do the entire thing,” laughs the president of the Muskoka Cottages Affiliation.

An Indigenous roundtable offered important enter. Martin-Downs was delighted when Mississaugas of the Credit score Chief R. Stacey LaForme not too long ago known as CVC the “gold commonplace” for engagement with First Nations.

Shopping for key properties to guard the river and construct the path is important, however tougher.

Acquisition of the Capstone property in Caledon is a proud instance.

However the authority’s missed on different nice properties.

CVC has many stunning parks, most of which have remained largely pure, usually on account of lack of assets.

Restoration of Belfountain Conservation Space, whose deterioration had turn out to be a sore level for native residents, is one other important accomplishment.

One of many Limehouse Conservation Space kilns has been restored. Extra must be accomplished.

Different makes use of (zip strains? forest-bathing?) in conservation areas can generate income with out environmental injury, she believes, if her 3P precept (pubs, potties and parking) is utilized.

Attendance ballooned to 1.5 million final yr. The general public thirst for inexperienced area is limitless.

“Connecting individuals with nature is step one in demonstrating how a thriving surroundings is important to their well being,” Martin-Downs mentioned on the Credit score Path launch. “It's greater than limestone screenings and wayfaring indicators. It's a inexperienced health club. It's a vacation spot in a tourism technique. It's a historical past lesson. It supplies entry to nature’s artwork gallery. It’s an lively transportation hall and, most essential, it's a constituency builder for the Credit score River and the watershed.”

Collaborating to protect the Credit score, battle local weather change and plug into nature ought to be one thing all of us simply do.

 

John Stewart is a retired longtime journalist with the Mississauga Information. Join with him at stewartjohn85@gmail.com