Nokiidaa Trail Link Through the McKenzie Marsh Work in Progress

Today was probably my third or fourth time tracking (photographing) progress of the Nokiidaa Trail link that will soon link the St. John’s Sideroad boardwalk to Tim Taylor Newmarket trail, and of course will complete Town of Aurora section of the Nokiidaa Trail.


From the beginning of the proposal I always have been excited about the trail link. In the past we biked all the way to the Roger’s reservoir and biking on the Young Street always felt unsafe. Now that I have a child, I do a lot of walking around the town, and this link will give me new walking opportunities and more nature photography.


Few weeks ago the gravel driveway was started, then the following week the post were inserted into yet frozen water, and as of today I have seen a section of the boardwalk. Not to mention major excavation further North of the boardwalk to be. Again, when the trail was proposed, my vision of the trail was simple – a maximum 2 meter wide low boardwalk with small gravel driveway leading to the boardwalk, & signs to watch out for the overflow waters in the spring. To my great surprise, this project is humongous, no wonder the Hadley Grange seniors were protesting against the project. I think it is over kill for what it necessary to cross to the other side, and why so big seconds away from another big boardwalk. This definitely already disturbed the wildlife in the wetland as the work in progress continues.


As I run quickly to snap some pictures of the work in progress, a lady approached my husband in the car. Then she approached me asking why I was taking pictures, I cautiously answered, ‘just tracking progress‘. She confronted me, ‘do you think this is a progress?‘. ‘No, I am tracking work in progress‘ – I corrected myself, and decided not to tell her that it was for my blog photo journal. ‘We fought against this for two years. We had so many birds, and now we get only four. The beaver is gone, I don’t know about the mink. I heard that the owner of the land beside the rail tracks offered to donate the land and build the by pass there, in order to stop this project. This project’s cost is probably over a million dollars of tax payers money‘ – a summary she gave me before I could speak. I usually listen more than talk, but I was curious – ‘You must have seen plans for this?‘. ‘No they did not give us any plans, nor told us the magnitude of the project. It just supposed to be a small by pass‘ – she replied.


So how much of truth is there. I don’t know. It is my first time conversation with a nice stranger, or Aurora citizen about this topic. I started little digging, and to my surprise I cannot find any plans for this project, even a simple summary. How about the environmental studies? Where are they? I thought information like that was a public knowledge? Or was Town of Aurora afraid to present the project plan to its citizens because potentially the project could have been scrapped? Well, the $500,000 amount tells a lot about this project.


Secondly, the rumor about the donating a land is not my concern at all. At this point who knows what the truth is, because the other source reported that owner tried to sell the property [Aurora’s trail link proposal better option: residents; but suggestion not in best interest of Aurora: CAO]. The truth is – this Nokiidaa Trail link is over kill, the lady is right, and its too late to revert anything.

‘Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.’ – a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.

To conclude, the beauty of nature is that it has its ways to repair itself. I am sure that as long we are going to respect the new trail link, the life will grow around it again. This opinion goes along with my backyard wildlife observations – that is, the little wildlife on my backyard is never the same from season to season or changes I made over the years.