Marshes need many champions

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The decline of the Netley-Libau Marsh did not happen in the last decade. Indeed, the development on the marsh and upriver on the Red has happened gradually over the century. Drainage and dredging have degraded what is this continent's largest coastal marsh.

It is widely known Netley-Libau is no longer a healthy wetland. Its plant life has been altered dramatically and the change in its structure means it is no longer good at doing the job of a marsh -- holding back a sudden influx of water, catching harmful nutrients and pathogens, recharging the big lake and stabilizing riverbank.

The story of Netley-Libau is a cautionary tale, and it is retold in varying degrees along the shorelines of Lake Winnipeg and other bodies of water. Development and agricultural use has crowded the riparian zones that help keep lakes healthy. That is, in part, why Lake Winnipeg faces the troubles well-enunciated in recent decades.

The challenge for municipalities is to encourage development to grow tax bases and coffers while protecting the environment. That is a straight-forward issue for them and the province to address through development and zoning rules, and adherence to provincial acts that seek to protect waterways and lands. But descriptions of how marshlands have been encroached upon by cottage and shoreline properties show the interests of development sometimes have triumphed over conservation.

And the actions of a few can do great damage. The province prohibits digging channels through, or draining of, semi-permanent or permanent wetlands and is now assessing the construction by one private property owner of a boat channel at Beaconia Marsh into Lake Winnipeg. He sought and was given a federal permit but no application was made for provincial approval. Better public education and provincial monitoring are required to protect an important public interest. The channel construction was halted once the province was twigged to the construction. It may or may not result in a permanent halt if it is seen to imperil the wetland.

A lobby group is so dismayed at the lack of progress on repairing and protecting wetlands it wants a temporary moratorium on development, including cottage subdivisions, along the shores of Lake Winnipeg and other lakes. Some want the provincial government to take care and control of public reserve lands all along the lakes.

This is an extreme reaction to a problem that is yet ill-defined. The damage over time of Netley-Libau Marsh is understood, as are the fixes, but jurisdictional barriers are not the prime obstruction. The troubles created by various forms of development are best addressed, as the Beaconia Marsh incident shows, through aggressive and diligent public education and good co-operation between municipalities and the provincial government.

Unlike the complex task of controlling the flow of damaging pollutants into Lake Winnipeg -- much of which comes from outside the province -- protection of riparian zones and wetlands is solely within the control of Manitoba governments. The lobbyists are right to highlight the dangers present, but concerted, effective action must come as a result of co-operation and mutual respect for the lakes.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 17, 2011 A10