COOTES PARADISE

FACT SHEET

Hamilton Harbour
LOCATION

Cootes Paradise, owned by Royal Botanical Gardens, is an 840 ha wildlife sanctuary containing a 250 ha coastal marsh.
It is situated at the western end of Hamilton Harbour, a natural bay at the western end of Lake Ontario.

 SOME GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Cootes Paradise, surrounded by the Niagara Escarpment, is sited in a glacial re-entrant valley (carved by the flow from melting glaciers) directly connected to Lake Ontario. The original outlet of the Cootes Paradise Marsh joined the mouth of the Grindstone Creek as it flowed north of Burlington Heights through the bay mouth bar of the former glacial Lake Iroquois.

Throughout the 1800s, Cootes Paradise consisted of a shallow water marsh that provided spawning, nursery and adult habitats for a warm water fish community and habitat for abundant and diverse wildlife.
Location of Hamiton HarbourCharles Durand, a local naturalist, wrote that in 1818-19, Cootes Paradise "was a paradise for game of all kinds. Immense flocks of ducks and wildfowl and wild animals innumerable in old times were seen there. It was also the resort of wild fur animals, such as otter, perhaps beaver, fisher, minks and especially muskrats; snakes were abundant there of all kinds". As late as 1949, Wragg, a scientist, wrote of Cootes Paradise, "Judging from reports 1793 Map of Cootes Paradiseof its condition, 30 years ago it must have been a remarkable place. In addition to the abundant growth of aquatic plants found there today, wild celery was common and wild rice so abundant that rowing through the marsh, one’s boat would be covered with rice. Water was so clean and food so plentiful that ducks remained in thousands until ice formed."Map of Cootes Paradise

This once lush marsh lost 85% of its emergent vegetation (e.g. bulrush, cattail) between 1934 and 1985. Similarly, the abundance and species composition of submerged vegetation declined from 24 species in 1949 to 10 in 1970.
THE ROAD FROM DECLINE TO RECOVERY...
  • 1793 to 1900 Marsh completely vegetated
  • 1819 - 1837 Desjardins Canal dredged to Dundas
  • 1896 Carp accidentally introduced to Lake Ontario
  • 1919 Dundas Wastewater Treatment Plant constructed, outlets to marsh
  • 1930s Carp blamed for "eradication of wild rice and wild celery restoration plantings"
  • 1940 McMaster University begins marsh research
  • 1949 Dr. E. M. Kay (McMaster University) recommends "carp dam" at Desjardins Canal
  • 1954-1960 Control program removes approximately 50,000 carp per year
  • 1956 Seaway Commission begins regulation of Lake Ontario water levels
  • 1935-1985 Aquatic emergent vegetation reduced by 85%
  • 1986-1988 National Water Research
    Institute determines that water clarity, water level manipulation (due to Seaway regulation) and carp are the most important factors thwarting aquatic vegetation in Cootes Paradise
  • 1988-1989 RBG and Ducks Unlimited proposes dike project
  • 1985-1990 Remedial Action Plan develops remediation measures
  • 1992 Project Paradise marsh restoration begins…..

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