Myrna was not threat averse. If she was, Ostrander Level, an ecological gem alongside the south shore of Prince Edward County, on Lake Ontario, would possible be an industrial wind vitality venture by now. Possibly the Blandings Turtle inhabitants there can be extirpated. Threatened alvar habitat can be misplaced endlessly and sure a whole lot, and even 1000’s of birds together with Purple Martins and Golden Eagles and threatened species of bats would have died. Myrna deserves a lot credit score for saving Ostrander Level and that’s how I acquired to know this unbelievable lady.
Myrna was beloved, principled, decided, very intelligent and some of the humble folks I’ve identified. She was awarded the Governor Normal’s Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012, Nature Canada’s volunteer of the Yr award in 2011, and was a founding father of the Prince Edward County Subject Naturalists and the Prince Edward Level Fowl Observatory. She labored within the background, by no means looking for consideration. Should you learn her obituary, you’ll perceive that she was not afraid of difficult authority on questions of civil rights and justice. As a resident of Picton, in Prince Edward County, a lover of nature and birds, and somebody who leads from behind, she was trusted to guide the struggle to save lots of Ostrander Level, a provincially owned pure space of nice ecological significance on the south shore of Prince Edward County, within the centre of the globally vital Prince Edward County South Shore Necessary Fowl Space.
A few of us spent many days strategizing together with her and her pricey pal Cheryl Anderson, and tips on how to problem the Ontario authorities’s need to allow industrial wind generators on Ostrander Level and elsewhere within the IBA. Occasions had been held with the Prince Edward County Subject Naturalists. Folks had been mobilized. Funds had been raised to pay the authorized charges, which is sufficient to deter 99% of us and most organizations from participating in a authorized struggle by which the playing cards are stacked within the favour of the Proponent. That didn’t deter Myrna and firm.
The Prince Edward County Subject Naturalists boldly challenged the Province, first by way of the Ontario Environmental Evaluation Tribunal and for the primary time in one of these case, received in a ground-breaking choice. The proponent and developer challenged the Tribunal’s choice on the Ontario Divisional Court docket. The Court docket reversed the tribunal choice in favour of the Proponent. Nonetheless, Myrna and firm by way of the Prince Edward County Subject Naturalists, and with the assist of Nature Canada, Ontario Nature, and the Alliance to Defend Prince Edward County, appealed to the Enchantment Court docket of Ontario. The Enchantment Court docket overturned the Divisional Court docket Resolution. Due to Myrna and her trusted buddies and supporters, the south shore of Prince Edward County is basically shielded from industrial exercise and it’s biodiversity is protected from dangerous actions.
We’re endlessly grateful to you Myrna.