Frenchman's Cove Golf Course Expansion:

Protected Areas Association is pleased that the Grande Meadows Golf Course Association is not planning to take any additional protected park land. We applaud their initiative that seeks to buy private land and develop it. (Park supporters would be even happier if this valuable wetland were going to be donated to the park, preserving habitat of the pintail ducks and Wilson snipes that nest in the area, and thereby partially recompensing the park for the golf course's previous development of park lands.)

Nevertheless, we question what market research would promote another 18-hole golf course when the province already has 26 courses that are closer to larger population centers and transportation hubs. While we admire the perseverance of this private golf club's leadership, and are not opposed to golf in general when courses are designed and maintained outside protected areas and with the latest environmental precautions, we believe that cobbling together infill alternatives, on this land-poor peninsula shared with an already-beleaguered park, is fraught with unanswered questions and problems.

Our major concerns are that:

-          The golf course must not further jeopardize the integrity of the Provincial Parks Act. The mandate of The Act is to protect habitat and provide environmental education and recreation in a natural setting. Golf courses compromise the ecological integrity and biological diversity of parks, which is why modern parks legislation does not allow them.

-          Golf courses destroy habitat by removing native vegetation and replacing it with man-made landscapes, often of exotic (non-native) vegetation. Greenways grass is not natural to this area - wetlands, coniferous trees and other natural coastal features of Maritime Barrens are.

-          More than four hectares of shoreline infilling , requiring 30,000 cubic metres of quarried rock, sand and gravel dumped into the barasway, will change the barasway substantively. This will require extremely careful study of all the implications before beginning the project.

-          A larger course will threaten more habitat of nesting and breeding birds.-off, This proposal will infill and destroy the existing wetlands adjacent to the park. The remaining wetlands protected by the park are bird habitats which need to be well buffered from stray golf balls, staff retrieving golf balls, pesticide run-off, and other development "edge effects."

-          Golf balls threaten habitat of nesting and breeding birds. This proposal will destroy wetlands that are next to the park. The remaining wetlands protected by the park are bird habitat which needs to be protected from stray golf balls, staff who are retrieving golf balls, and pesticide run-off.

-          Pesticide run-off creates a long-term build-up that may not always be measurable in the short term in birds, but decreases nesting and reproduction in the long run.

-          Five-metre buffer zones are not enough to protect the coast or the wetlands. The minimum should be 15-metre buffer zones between the golf course and both shoreline and wetlands.

-          The Precautionary Principle of Sustainable Development is that development in environmentally-sensitive areas must always err on the side of caution. This park and its adjacent wetlands are habitat for:
              o    pintail ducks and Wilson snipes,
              o    over 20 species of terrestrial birds,
              o    stray and vagrant species.

-          Further development threatens the recreation of the non-golfing members of the public. Bird-watchers frequently visit this site which often hosts unusual species. These rare birds will likely no longer visit if the region's ecosystem is compromised.

-          Ecotourism will bring more visitors over the long term to the Burin Peninsula than golf courses, which tourists can access elsewhere more conveniently.

-          Changes to the barachois will alter its natural flood-break system, and could threaten the town of Frenchman's Cove with future flooding. By changing the existing natural configuration and reducing space in the barasway, there will likely be increased pressure on the banks, altering coastal life and directing additional water towards the town.

"The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard."

— Gaylord Nelson
former governor of Wisconsin, co-founder of Earth Day