Quote:
Originally Posted by rrskylar
parker wetlands right, the made up name for an area that was historically dry prairie with scrub bush.
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LOL, the first and most obvious fact about the geography of Winnipeg is that the word "dry" isn't a very good description of the cities environment. While it's true that the yearly amount of precipitation we get isn't that different from any other part of the Canadian prairies, the fact that the red river valley is one of the flattest regions of land on earth AND being the dumping ground of 2 countries spring melts negates that.
The vast majority of Winnipeg was originally either permanent or temporary seasonal wetlands. It was really only the northwest quadrant of the city where you could find the true dry grassland that you would associate with most of manitoba, and that was only because of it's elevation and the numerous streams that drained the area such as such sturgeon & colony creek.
Meanwhile everything south of the Assinniboine and east of the red was too flat for any real streams to develop, so the water mostly sat and accumulated in wet meadows and and forested bush if you were closer to the river.
The parker lands may not have been a full blown swamp but they were enough of a wetland to be filled with the sounds of croaking frogs in the evening. Can you name a place within walking distance inside the city near where you live where you can be guaranteed to see a frog? I live close to Omands creek and it's difficult to come across frogs even there under most circumstances. So naturally, people were kinda pissed when their local neighborhood nature spot they never consented to selling off to developers was sawed down 3rd-world-country-style right in front of their very doorsteps. Just because the protests were hijacked by left wing activists who turned a greenspace preservation issue into a 'native lands' social justice act doesn't make that area any less wet than it already was.