Look At Bigger Picture Of Fading Moraine

Letter to the editor - The Markham Economist & Sun

Re: Group calls for moraine protection, Sept. 22. From a distance, the Oak Ridges Moraine is a picture perfect landscape. Who wouldn’t want a piece of its beauty? But that’s just the problem. Its enticing fishing waters, pristine golf courses and scenic trails and parks have attracted thousands of residents. Reporter David Fleischer highlights several key concerns placing strain on the moraine including the degradation of animal habitats and threatening levels of phosphorus and E. Coli in the plants.
But, like a beautiful painting, it is easy to miss how the frame around the canvas can affect the overall picture. Not only does the land itself need restoring, but its outskirts that need paying attention to.
To the north of the moraine is an ever increasing urban development. Hundreds of millions of litres of underground water, filtered by the sand and gravel of the moraine, is lost in water and sewage pipes of residential and industrial areas and during the construction of the major sewage systems serving York Region. As the underground water is depleted, streams that flow off the moraine diminish and waterways dry up. It will only be too late when we notice fish species disappearing and the ripple effect of a suffering ecosystem soon after.
Saving the moraine itself is not enough. We must look at the region as a whole if we want to preserve the very beauty that drew it to us in the first place.
Jennifer Low
Richmond Hill