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Meadowlands Conservation Area trail treads cautiously
(Ancaster News, Richard Leitner, Mar 24 2016)

The Hamilton Conservation Authority expects to begin work this year on the second phase of a formal trail through the Meadowlands Conservation Area – one that is a compromise with neighbours who didn’t want one.

Sandy Bell, manager of design and development, said he’s in the process of getting approvals to extend the initial stretch of trail through a Hydro One corridor to link up with Stonehenge Drive.

Work to date has nearly finished upgrading an informal trail from Harrogate Drive that runs through a marshy area to Tiffany Creek and placed a bridge over the waterway, he said.

Once the second stage is completed, the final phase will take the trail down the hydro property to the southern edge of the conservation area, roughly parallel to the corner of Raymond Road and Chambers Drive.

The $110,000 project is a scaled-back version of an initial plan in 2011 to create secondary trail loops by the wooded area at the southern end, one that met stiff opposition from neighbours who argued it would invade their privacy.

One of the original plan’s goals was to discourage people – including those from more than 500 new homes to the south that were only in the planning stage back then – from creating their own makeshift trails.

The main and loop trails were also designed to try to keep them away from the environmentally sensitive area between DiIorio Circle and Stone Church Road that includes a pristine swamp and woodlot with butternut trees, a species-at-risk in Ontario.


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