The Bert Miller Nature Club of Fort Erie was founded in the mid 1990s with the primary purpose of protecting and preserving Marcy Woods.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Marcy Woods is a 116 plus hectare site on the shore of Lake Erie that is unique in being a virtually undisturbed exemplar of a mature, highly diverse Carolinian sand dune forest. It is included in the Point Abino ANSI and is recognized as a Provincially Significant Natural Heritage Site based in part on a study by Larson et al. - a summary of which is published in "Woodland Heritage of Southern Ontario". Marcy Woods contains various ecological communities - ranging from dunes to wetlands - with a broad variety of biota including numerous rare and endangered species.

For many years, the BMNC has worked to broker a sale of this critical site to the NCC. Lamentably, this effort failed and the property was sold to a developer last summer. Although the new owner states that he has no plans to develop this property, we believe that its integrity is at great risk over the long term.

We have come to the conclusion that the only means of assuring the unassailable protection of this property is for the Province to use its power of expropriation. By designating this area as a strictly controlled natural preserve, the pristine and diverse ecology of Marcy Woods can be protected in perpetuity - thus assuring the viability of this critical reservoir of genetic diversity. Furthermore, Marcy Woods will remain accessible for continuing scientific study and naturalistic appreciation.

No doubt expropriation may seem an extreme and even repugnant action to many of you. But, I will remind you that the Province has expropriated tens of thousands of hectares of farmland and woodland for roads - often with highly detrimental environmental consequences. We ask now that the Province use this same power to protect 116 hectares of irreplaceable Canadian heritage!

To secure the permanent protection of Marcy Woods we need the strong support of naturalists, their groups and organizations such as the FON.

David Brower, the founder of Friends of the Earth, once admonished, "Polite conservationists leave no mark save the scars upon the earth that could have been prevented had they stood their ground."

Please join with the Bert Miller Nature Club in standing this ground.

Thank you.