By Paul Morden, from www.theobserver.ca The Observer
Years of effort are behind the blue flag set to rise this summer over Sarnia’s Canatara Park beach.
The popular Lake Huron beach spent several of those years as a pilot site for the international Blue Flag program that awards the designation to beaches and marines meeting standards in water quality, environmental management and education, as well as safety and services.
This time, Canatara made the cut and joins 24 other Canadian beaches, along with four marinas, authorized to fly the blue flag this summer.
“We’re all really excited,” said Shelley Erwin, a city recreation coordinator.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley praised for her work on the project, along with her fellow city worker Dave Meyers.
“They’ve been working on this for over a decade, and it is prestigious,” Bradley said.
Maintaining a good record of water quality through a summer season was one of the last criteria the beach needed to check off to get across the finish line, and that happened last year, Erwin said.
This year, the Grand Bend Beach in Lambton Shores, along with municipally-owned marinas in Grand Bend and Port Franks, also maintained the Blue Flag designations they’ve held since 2009.
“The Blue Flag sets a level of high standards for operation of these sites which are recognized worldwide,” said Ashley Farr, a facilitator of recreation and leisure with Lambton Shores.
Environmental Defence administers the Blue Flag program in Canada, but it operates worldwide, certifying more than 4,000 beaches and marinas in 48 countries.
Bradley said the designation for Canatara beach comes as efforts to have the St. Clair River taken off a North American list of environmental hotspots are moving closer to being successful.
“You’ve now got this premier beachfront being declared one of the best in Canada,” he added.
“You can get no more ringing endorsement.”
Home to refineries and chemical plants, Sarnia-Lambton has long battled a poor environmental image but Bradley said that’s a war public relations campaigns can’t win.
“You only win it by actions,” he said, “and this is a very concrete example of actions that resulted in this designation.”
Erwin said an official flag raising ceremony is planned for later in June at Canatara beach, but she added work to improve and maintain the lakefront park will continue.
Among the individuals and groups working there is environmental educator Kim Gledhill, who is involved in a project with King George VI Public School to plant dune grass in the park, and help preserve and restore its natural areas.
There are plans for the students to do more planting in the dunes this fall, and also put up post and rope “nautical fencing,” along with removable boardwalks to protect the grass.
The boardwalk will be combined with rollout mats the city has that also help make the beach more accessible to visitors with disabilities.
While dune grass develops extensive root systems, it can’t withstand trampling by beach goers, according to Gledhill.
“It doesn’t take much,” she said. “A few times walking on it, and it kills it.”
As well as helping maintain the dunes by preventing erosion, dune grass provides a rare habitat for several species at risk, including the Butler’s garter snake and another reptile called the five-lined skink.
“Less than 2% of the dune grasses are left around the Great Lakes,” Gledhill said, who repeated a warning she said is often given by the Lake Huron Coastal Centre, “No grasses, no beach.”
Projects by several environmental groups, with the support of the city, have improved the lakefront park significantly over the last decade, Gledhill said.
“People are really starting to care, and they’re getting involved.”
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