The Alton Grange is home to a provincially significant wetland and one of the few in our watershed that has withstood the impacts that has devastated so many other in the Credit River watershed.
Wetlands are among the most productive and valuable ecosystems in the world. A healthy wetland not only provides a home a very diverse flora and fauna, it acts like a sponge and filter that improves water quality, helps prevent both flood and drought, and prevent erosion. The very nature of a wetland health in the mitigation against climate change. The Alton Grange is no exception.
Protecting the remaining wetlands like those in the Alton Grange is critical to the health of our environment It is also critical to support the CVCs efforts to protect wetlands, restore and create new ones in the rest of the watershed, especially in the headwaters area or upper portion where the Grange property is located.
The CVC estimated that 48% of the wetlands had been lost or degraded between 1954 and 2009 due to human activities such as expansion of urban areas, agriculture, and industrial developments. Invasive species such as Phragmites are also playing a role by displacing native plants and reducing the habitat of native plants, insects and fish. It is predicted that if this trend continues, 18% of the remaining wetlands in the watershed could be lost by 2020.[1]
[1] Valuing Wetlands in Southern Ontario’s Credit River Watershed at http://www.creditvalley.ca