PLACES
Times Beach Nature Preserve
Times Beach Nature Preserve is a USACE reclaimed former USACE created Contained Disposal Facility. First created in the 1940's to be a dredge dump for Buffalo River and Harbor silt. It sits atop what was once described as Buffalo's premiere lakefront beach. It started at the historic lighthouse and stretched west toward Hamburg. Gradually the chop of civilization changed the shorelines, buried most of the beaches, and dunes, and marshes, under industrial fill. At the last there was left that small beach that began as the sand spit that lead into the Buffalo Harbor built by Sam Wilkeson. The harbor had been built to attract the contract to build the terminous of the Erie Canal. A sand wall and then a stone wall had been built, and behind lie the soon to vanish beaches. The Erie Canal transformed Buffalo and the world. The long gone Buffalo Times newspaper campaigned to establish the beach as a weekend attraction. For several years at the turn of the century, it was a popular destination. And then in the 1920's until concerns about contamination closed it forever. Typhoid, arsenic poisoning and a wide flood of newly created and released industrial poisons float down the lake channels and lakeshores, and from all the cities, towns, villages, crossroads, and into the creeks and streams, swamps and marshes and from all the way up to the headland forests and wetlands. the whole damned ecosystem flowed down to Buffalo Harbor and the whole damned ecosystem was poisoned. Poisons even came with every rain. by the late 1930's, Times Beach had closed forever.
"In the late 1950's the US Army Corps of Engineers created the shoreline dike and turned the area into a contained disposal facility for harbor and Buffalo River dredge. The dredging was a critical part of keeping the Buffalo Harbor open for shipping. Eventually, due to changing values, the increasingly contaminated site was was abandoned as a dumping site. Nature immediately began to reclaim the area. Birds and other species moved in. By the 1970's it became apparent to scientists and citizens that migrating and breeding birds and other wildlife were adapting and using the emerging oasis.
Today we recognize the Times Beach Nature Preserve as one of the most significant "natural" sites on the Great Lakes. It attracts and anchors critical wildlife species including millions of migrating birds, butterflies including the iconic Monarch butterfly, native bee's and breeding birds, reptiles, mammals, and over 100 species of native pollinators. Times Beach Nature Preserve is an evolving oasis at a perfect location at the confluence of Lake Erie, the Niagara, and the Buffalo River. Times Beach Nature Preserve is surrounded by urban and industrial communities. The preserve provides essential ecological services that help promote biodiversity, clean water, and clean air.
Today our Great Lakes waters and adjacent habitats are at great risk and continue to decline. The Buffalo Lake and River fronts are precious ecological jewels that we have spent hundreds of millions to clean and protect. Development, sewer discharge, agricultural runoff, and other forms of pollution continue to effect the health of biodiversity, wildlife populations, and human health. Conserving, restoring, and protecting Times Beach is a hedge against the threats of human caused ecological damage."
- from Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve website
,
"In the late 1950's the US Army Corps of Engineers created the shoreline dike and turned the area into a contained disposal facility for harbor and Buffalo River dredge. The dredging was a critical part of keeping the Buffalo Harbor open for shipping. Eventually, due to changing values, the increasingly contaminated site was was abandoned as a dumping site. Nature immediately began to reclaim the area. Birds and other species moved in. By the 1970's it became apparent to scientists and citizens that migrating and breeding birds and other wildlife were adapting and using the emerging oasis.
Today we recognize the Times Beach Nature Preserve as one of the most significant "natural" sites on the Great Lakes. It attracts and anchors critical wildlife species including millions of migrating birds, butterflies including the iconic Monarch butterfly, native bee's and breeding birds, reptiles, mammals, and over 100 species of native pollinators. Times Beach Nature Preserve is an evolving oasis at a perfect location at the confluence of Lake Erie, the Niagara, and the Buffalo River. Times Beach Nature Preserve is surrounded by urban and industrial communities. The preserve provides essential ecological services that help promote biodiversity, clean water, and clean air.
Today our Great Lakes waters and adjacent habitats are at great risk and continue to decline. The Buffalo Lake and River fronts are precious ecological jewels that we have spent hundreds of millions to clean and protect. Development, sewer discharge, agricultural runoff, and other forms of pollution continue to effect the health of biodiversity, wildlife populations, and human health. Conserving, restoring, and protecting Times Beach is a hedge against the threats of human caused ecological damage."
- from Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve website
,
|
LOCATION
Times Beach Nature Preserve is located in Buffalo New York.
|