On November 14th, 2025, CAFES, Ecology Ottawa, and the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club, led by Ontario Nature and Friends of Stittsville Wetlands, sent a letter to the City of Ottawa urging Council and staff to strengthen municipal protections for Ottawa's wetlands.
Wetlands play an enormously critical role - they provide habitat for a huge number of species, store carbon, protect against erosion, stabilize shores, recharge groundwater, mitigate flooding, filter and clean water, provide resources for food and medicine, and provide important cultural and recreational opportunities for people and communities.
However, wetlands are consistently threatened by climate change, invasive species, changes in hydrology, land conversion (predominantly to agricultural lands), development, and expansion of the urban boundary.
In 2024, many wetlands in Ontario lost their protected status when the Province changed the scoring system that determined which wetlands were granted as Provincially Significant Wetlands (PSW). Noteably in Ottawa, this resulted in losing protection for 55 hectares of the Goulbourn Wetland Complex, and today in 2025, the City's proposed Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendments would further reduce municipal protections for another 74.6 hectares of Goulburn and 19.7 hectares of the Richmond Fen.
In fact, Ottawa and surrounding areas of eastern Ontario have had the highest rate of wetland loss recorded in the province from 2000 to 2020. The City must avoid these losses by ensuring all types of wetlands, not just those with PSW status, are strictly protected under municipal planning policies. This would also align with Climate Ready Ottawa, the City's climate resilience strategy. The Goulburn complex in particular received the highest possible score for flood protection and providing clean water. As we know, many areas of the City are especially vulnerable to floods and we have been seeing record-high rainfall from climate change in recent years.
As CAFES continues to expand our city-wide policy advocacy efforts, we also recently attended the Public Open House on the Bear Brook Watershed. The City is conducting a watershed study on the area to assess current watershed conditions and to gather community priorities for how to maintain watershed health into the future. Ironically perhaps, invited by watchful CAFES members at Greater Avalon Community Association, on Mon Oct 17th, CAFES ED Angela Keller-Herzog attended the E1-South Orleans - Wall Road Third Public Open House, only to learn that this urban expansion will wipe out several wetland areas and replace them with a municipal stormwater pond. Will this work? Has the water budget of the sub-watershed been calculated? Is this the most cost effective approach to manage water? Does anybody ever calculate the value of habitat for biodiversity lost? We have so many questions.
If you want to learn more about municipal wetland policy and existing conservation efforts, be sure to attend the CAFES Trees and Greenspace Caucus on Tuesday, December 2nd from 12:00 - 2:00pm via Zoom. We will be having special presentations from the City of Ottawa, Ontario Nature and Friends of Stittsville Wetlands followed by group discussions and community networking. Register here!
You can read the full letter below, and consider contacting your Councillor to express your concerns. You can also visit Friends of Stittsville Wetlands for more info, and check out Ontario Nature's resource page.
Also at the Nov 30 2023 ARAC meeting was a review and recommendations for updates to the Site Alteration By-law. The purpose of this 2018 by-law is to prevent drainage problems, protect soils in designated agricultural resource areas and protect designated natural areas and identified natural features in and around the urban area. The proposed amendments were intended to
The proposed amendments were supported by CAFES as providing some additional tools towards the objective of no net loss in our wetlands and woodlands. They were opposed by the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA).
Councillor Brown presented an amendment that effectively negated all staff recommendations, including the new rural protections on pre-emptive land clearing and the notification for tree clearing for agricultural purposes in the peri-urban area. Staff are required to report back to ARAC on final wording, following further (unspecified) consultations. From a nature protection perspective this outcome is disappointing. If you are interested in being informed via CAFES of future consultations on the site protection by-law, please write to Angela akellerherzog@cafesottawa.ca.
