WINDSOR STAR (Ontario) 28 March 06 City opts to protect rattlers (Doug Schmidt)
For the fifth year running, Windsor is applying for a federal grant to help acquire more local land for the deadliest reptile in Ontario, the endangered eastern massasauga rattlesnake.
Since 2002, the city has received an annual $250,000 grant from Ottawa (which must be matched from city coffers) toward land acquisitions at the Spring Garden area of natural and scientific interest (ANSI), part of the Ojibway complex.
It's one of the few significant remaining habitats in Ontario for the province's only venomous snake.
"We've received $1 million from them to date ... because of our commitment to protect the eastern massasauga rattler," said Don Sadler, Windsor's executive director of parks and forestry services.
Even with the election of a new Conservative government, Sadler said "protecting endangered species is high on the list of any government."
Since 2002, the city has acquired almost 40 per cent of the 136-acre Spring Garden ANSI, home to a number of rare Carolinian zone natural species. Sadler said the city's plan remains to have the entire parcel acquired by 2007, either by purchasing private lots, exchanging them for other properties or through expropriation.
"The important thing is, the whole Spring Garden ANSI is significant," said Sadler.
The funds from Ottawa are available under a federal habitat stewardship program.
As for parts of the Spring Garden ANSI becoming endangered due to their potential as part of a new international truck route to the border, Sadler said the border crossing debate "is a separate issue."