ABSTRACT
In Ontario, south of James Bay, the most extensive and highest quality habitat for migrating waterfowl is provided by the shoreline marshes of Lakes Erie and St. Clair. Canadian Wildlife Service studies have shown that the wetlands associated with the eastern shore of Lake St. Clair are presently the most important Ontario staging areas for mallards, black ducks, Canada geese and tundra swans. From 1965 to 1984, 30 percent of the privately owned marshland along the eastern shore of Lake St. Clair has been destroyed–a loss of 1,064 ha. Drainage for agriculture accounted for 92 percent of the loss. Canadian Wildlife Service studies have shown a 79 percent decline in the use of this area by true marsh-dwelling waterfowl during the spring and 41 percent decline in the autumn. In 1984, a new and greater threat to the remaining marshland emerged–property tax reassessments. These Provincially-administered reassessments have resulted in tax increases of 65 percent and higher on marshland. If the same property were drained and farmed, the taxes would be about half as much, and government tax subsidies would be available to further reduce the cost to the landowner.
Pressure to convert these valuable marshes to agricultural land combined with the recent property reassessment and dramatic increase in taxes will only work against the efforts of the Canadian Wildlife Service and others to protect and preserve the wetlands of Lake St. Clair. More marshes will be destroyed and converted to farmland. North American waterfowl will suffer.
