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Restore Cootes Campaigns

Road Kill on Cootes Drive

We can start to make a difference protecting at-risk turtles and other species in Cootes from road mortality right now.

It’s as simple as deciding to use an alternative route to Cootes or Olympic Drive when driving between Dundas and Hamilton (walking and cycling? not a problem!).

Take the driver's pledge to avoid Cootes Drive

Coldspring Valley/Lot M Parking

Restore Cootes spearheaded a campaign to have McMaster University act on their campus master plan to create a 30m Naturalized buffer zone between their west campus parking (Lot M) and Ancaster Creek.

The success of this campaign now moves to a new phase: McMaster’s Campus Plan now included a coldwater marsh project. We need you support to make sure it happens!

Lot M before the bufferLot M after the buffer

After a Restore Cootes campaign, McMaster University removed hundreds of parking spaces in their west campus lots to create a 30m naturalized buffer for the adjacent Ancaster Creek in 2014.

Lose a road, (re)gain a wetland: Restore Cootes proposes a new vision for Dundas and Hamilton, one that enhances and restores natural areas on the periphery of Cootes Paradise that have been degraded or lost to development.

We start with Cootes Drive as a prime contender for a restoration project that would replace the road with a vast (original) wetland; as well, Olympic Drive by the old canal and other sites could be remediated to create healthy ecosystems that benefit human and non-human communities.

Things can change: Valley Inn Road is now closed to cars, and there’s a plan to make the Eastern entrance to Dundas into an Ecological Park.

Drive Through Paradise
A presentation to the Dundas Historical Society by Randy Kay
Drive Through Paradise
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