Published: April 17, 2008 06:12 pm      

GUEST VIEW: Environmental destiny and the parkway

On April 26, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will speak at Stella Niagara on the topic of “Our Environmental Destiny.” His appearance there will occur eight years and one day after he spoke at NCCC in another celebration of Earth Day. When he arrived at the airport that day he was picked up and given a brief driving tour past Niagara Falls and along the gorge parkway.

He may not have known then about the uniqueness and diversity of the gorge botanical populations, including ancient old-growth cedars and the state-threatened green gentian, or about the 231,786.75 tons of carbon-emissions released annually by parkway vehicles. As co-author of The Riverkeepers, however, he probably considered the impact on the fragile gorge and river ecologies of 6 miles of four-lane sheetwater run-off, carrying its burden of carbon and winter salt and herbicide residues. And he must have seen clearly that the parkway despoiled what could otherwise have been a restored natural landscape.

Back at NCCC, he waited backstage in the Fine Arts Auditorium while a panel discussed “The Greening of Niagara.” Paul Dyster, now the Mayor of Niagara Falls, who was a councilman then, was on that panel. Then Kennedy came out and spoke eloquently about the value of the natural world. And then he signed a petition supporting the Niagara Heritage Partnership proposal for the removal of all four lanes of the gorge parkway between Niagara Falls and Lewiston.

During the years that followed, Bruce S. Kershner, naturalist, author, and member of the WNY Old Growth Forest Survey Team, continued his exploration of the Niagara gorge and river corridor, documenting the locations of old-growth cedars and deciduous trees of age, as well. Some of the cedars are believed to be hundreds of years old, predating the arrival of Europeans to what would come to be known as North America. He’d already signed the petition supporting parkway removal, as had the old Growth Forest Survey Team, along with dozens of other organizations.

Sadly, Kershner died in February 2007, but not before he’d completed two maps of the lower Niagara gorge and rivershores, one showing the ancient cedar locations (though not so precisely that someone up to no good might harm them) and one of the much larger old growth trees, this latter map named “The Corridor of Antiquity.” The maps were lovingly and painstakingly drawn and colored, with some handprinted notations. They can be viewed at www.niagaraheritage.org. Some who’ve seen them say they cannot make out a clear depiction of the parkway on these maps. I’d like to believe in Kushner’s mind it was already gone. If you visit the Web site, please consider joining Kennedy and Kershner and the thousands of others who have signed the hardcopy pages or the electronic version of the petition for parkway removal.

The Niagara Heritage Partnership continues to strongly urge the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) to revisit the parkway issue so that they might come to the decision the gorge parkway should be totally removed in the interest of restored natural landscapes. This is, incidentally, a renewal of a written request we mailed to Parks Commissioner Carol Ash in May of 2007, which remains unacknowledged nearly a year later. It needs to be admitted, silently if necessary, that the previous Parks administration made serious mistakes when it initiated the so-called “pilot” project and then decided to make this current condition permanent.

If OPRHP needs convincing beyond the evidence, documentation, and rationale Niagara Heritage Partnership has presented over the years, they need look no further than a recent study concerning the revitalization of Niagara Falls completed by architecture and urban planning students from Kent State University and the University of Buffalo. The teams from both universities agreed on at least one thing: the gorge parkway should be removed. It appears that everyone who has examined the issue objectively knows that economic and environmental benefits go together with this parkway removal — everyone, that is, except those who are actually in a position to do something about it.

Bob Baxter is a member of the Niagara Heritage Partnership.