The natural habitat of nesting Bald Eagles in Brantford definitely is located in an area city council will be dealing with in its yet-to-be-completed waterfront master plan, brantford.com has learned.

And according to Ministry of Natural Resources guidelines to protect the species and its habitat, any disruption or development within 260 hectares (640 acres) of a nest should be avoided. (The Bald Eagle and its habitat are protected by Ontario’s Endangered Species Act of 1980.)

(The existence of a Bald Eagle nest inside the Brantford city limits along the Grand River has been confirmed by brantford.com – see the accompanying photos and video.)

Council recently shot down an interim bylaw that would have placed a moratorium on development along the Grand River until the completion of a waterfront master plan, which was responding to special interest groups who feared unchecked development would jeopardize the natural esthetics and wildlife habitat of the area.

Council pledged to deal with each new development proposal on its own merit, keeping in mind the waterfront concerns. Development currently underway would not be affected.

The waterfront master plan, however, is not expected to be completed for another 17 months.

Councillor Marguerite Ceschi-Smith says she advocates the protection of endangered species.

“In the waterfront master plan, there is going to be a broad-based community consultation, all the way through with community groups and the Ministry of Natural Resources,” she said. “So those are issues I’m sure will be discussed and will inevitably be addressed in some way or another and I would imagine that there would be protection put in place for the eagles. But, it will be fully discussed and everybody will be consulted.”

Councillor John Bradford agreed that all details will be considered with the waterfront master plan.

“We’re not going to singularly look at eagles independent of the rest of the picture,” he said. “We’re going to look at everything. So the waterfront master plan is not going to be the responsibility of a single agenda and I don’t want anyone to think were going to be exclusively looking at one element in exclusion of others.”

And he said he would not get into ‘an eagle debate.’

“I’m always concerned that people are hysterical about certain elements when they’re not historical about the larger picture,” he said. “And the larger picture is we’ve had this water access here long before I ever came on council and no one has done anything about it …”

With files from Dan Losier / Special to brantford.com

Editor’s note / From Ministry of Transportation guidelines pertaining to Bald Eagles:
Essential habitats are locations that biologists consider necessary for continued survival and recovery of a species. The species requirements ... are used here to identify essential habitat. These requirements include, but are not limited to:
1. Space for individual and population growth and normal behaviour;
2. Food, water, air, light, minerals or other nutritional or physiological requirements;
3. Cover or shelter;
4. Sites for breeding, reproduction, rearing of offspring, and protection from disturbance;
5. Limits on habitat modification (timber harvesting, recreational developments, subdivisions, etc.) should be clearly established in advance, and unplanned development should be discouraged or prohibited;
6. Development (if it is to occur) should only be allowed to approach an upper limit slowly, over a period of years. Sudden, largescale development should be prevented if possible.
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