Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Webwood Falls and the Roadside 'Monster'

Dropped by to check things out at Webwood Falls today, a Bruce Trail property that attracts a lot of visitors because of the waterfalls.  We've invested quite a bit of effort in providing a viewing platform and fencing off some of the dangerous slope.

There was lots of water, given how much rain we've had and are still having.  It wasn't the usual trickle for this time of year and it made a great picture.  All of these were just handheld, leaning against the railing of the viewing platform to keep the camera steady, a 1/4 second exposure.

It looks to me that there's been some further erosion here.  You can see the reddish and blue layers of the soft Queenston Shale at the bottom of the falls, behind the curtain of water.

Sadly though, I wasn't there to check out the falls.  We had had a report that the roadside had been trimmed heavily, leaving a mess.  I went to check it out, since I'm the volunteer Land Steward Director.
The local municipality, Grey Highlands, has obviously bought one of those infernal trimming monsters that can drive along the roadside and shred all the saplings and lower limbs of trees.  They had trimmed this wall of cedars for 200 yards.

They trimmed both sides of the road beside the falls, leaving a major mess in my opinion.  I think I have a personal dislike of these mechanical monsters.  A little tree trimming would be fine, but not like this.

The new entry to the Bruce Trail continuing north from here shows how the machine shreds branches rather than cutting them off cleanly.  We've taken a popular tourist attraction and downgraded it to a mess!  Though the falls is still nice.  Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon who's against progress.  If that's the case, I'm happy to be a grumpy old curmudgeon!

Further to yesterday's post, we don't actually move until mid-October, so we have a good lead time to be ready!


20 comments:

  1. Loe the falls nut not so much the mess that made of the trees.

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  2. I think it's awful to treat beautiful trees like that! So very destructive. You are not a grumpy curmudgeon but a bonafide tree lover, just like me! :-)

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  3. All in the name of saving money I suppose.

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  4. That looks a particularly messy piece of work, even allowing that it was done with a mechanical flail. I can't help but wonder though why the trees were allowed to grow so close to the road in the first place.

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  5. Efficiency but brutality from the look of those trees!

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  6. Down the country roads around us, trees are mangled like this too. I understand it more when they are sprawling branches of other trees and need to be trimmed back from the road but the cedars are usually so neat and orderly. where are those falls, Stew?

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  7. Hello, the tree trimming does look messy. Those poor trees look awful. I do love the waterfalls, a beautiful sight to see. Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

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  8. Loved the Falls but not the mess done to the trees. There is no reason to take away from the natural beauty that the trees provide creating a Wonderland as you drive down the country roads.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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  9. Nice capture of the waterfall, especially without a tripod. Sorry about the mess along the road....what a horrible way to trim trees.

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  10. A beautiful waterfall, but that is a good reason to complain to the municipality- with photos to back you up.

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  11. Beautiful falls photos. So soft looking.

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  12. I am surprised that the trees survives...

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  13. A pox on the people who caused that destruction. And thanks for the views of Webwood Falls, which I remember well from a visit with our naturalists club a couple of years ago.

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  14. Beautiful waterfalls, ugly roadside. Yes, those boom mowers leave a terrible mess and uglify (if that's a word)hundreds of miles of roadside every year. So much easier to make a mess than to do the work with a little care, pride and sensitivity.

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  15. Waterfalls like this are always a high priority to find and photograph....in spite of photographing many along the escarpment, this is one that I've yet to discover! Thanks for sharing. And I agree....those mechanical monsters are horribly destructive in cases like this and should not be permitted.

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  17. I've seen a few areas around here where one of those monster shredder machine has gone through as well along the roadsides leaving a mangled mess of twisted and torn branches in it's wake. Something definitely wrong about that way of doing things. Nice waterfall.

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