St. Catharines is investing millions to protect the shoreline, and relocating lost fish habitat space.
The City has approved a contractor for 2021 shoreline protection along a stretch of Shore Boulevard.
The roughly $1.7 million project will see an armour stone retaining wall constructed on the lake front between 8 and 14 Shore Blvd., similar to work that was completed last year on Abbey Mews.
“A changing global climate means we have to adapt, and that includes actions to protect our shorelines as important areas of natural infrastructure. Investments like these do just that, setting our City on strong footing for a future with higher lake levels,” said Director of Engineering, Facilities and Environmental Services Anthony Martuccio.
The pending Shore Boulevard, and completed Abbey Mews, shoreline protection efforts will result in the loss of some fish habitat on the Lake Ontario waterfront.
The City says it will move forward with a habitat compensation project to offset the loss, including working with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, Trout Unlimited Canada, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
City staff says they have found a site on the Twelve Mile Creek in Pelham that will positively impact fish habitats not only in that municipality, but also in St. Catharines as its downstream neighbour.
The habitat compensation work, should it move forward, will entail the installation of a by-pass channel onto publicly accessible lands to divert around an existing pond and dam.
St. Catharines staff will be reaching out to Pelham to ask permission for the fish habitat compensation project.