History of Coldspring Valley Nature Sanctuary

Our guest speaker today was Randy Kay.   Randy provided a detailed history of the relationship between McMaster University, Royal Botanical Gardens (RGB) and the intended versus ultimate use of a unique landscape.  Specifically, the talk dealt with land currently identified as McMaster’s parking lot “M” and its former identity as Coldspring Valley Nature Sanctuary.  The land was purchased by McMaster from RGB in 1963.  The land was deemed necessary to accommodate future parking requirements.  As it turns out, the need was grossly overstated and to this day the lot remains significantly underutilized.  The good news is that efforts to restore the land to its natural state have resulted in progress.  This spring McMaster will be removing hundreds of parking spaces to create a 30m naturalized buffer between the creek and parking.  This is a good start, but falls short of the potential to erase the footprint of excess parking and rehabilitate the beauty of this river valley to its more natural function; as a floodplain, as specialized habitat for at risk species, a natural system integral to the health of Cootes Paradise.  McMaster researchers are interested in creating an on-campus outdoor research facility and are being encouraged to take the next logical step to make this innovative teaching facility a reality.