Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course

It's been a few months since I walked to Meadowbrook Golf Course located at the far western end of Cote St. Luc Road. Here are some photos from the walk beginning with the completed construction of burying the St. Pierre River (seen looking over a fence at Toe Blake Park); what was left of the river (more of a creek) is gone, shrubs and grass planted, a road along the edge, and a man hole cover.

Here (below) is Cote St. Luc Road as it approaches Meadowbrook Golf Course; it used to be tree lined and quite pleasant, here it is earlier this week. 

Possible new St. Pierre River sighting

Leaving Meadowbrook Golf Course--anyone who has been there knows where this area is located--I could hear running water, but where was it coming from? Then I noticed a drainage ditch on the other side of the train tracks. Above the tracks is the Montreal West town maintenance department and other buildings. It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that this water could possibly be from the buried St. Pierre River on that side of the tracks. It's too late for this to be melting snow or spring run-off so the river may be the source of this water. Of course, I could be totally wrong and this is just wishful thinking. . .

This is the trail out of the golf course

On the right are train tracks and below are more train tracks

That is quite a lot of water emptying out of a drainage pipe

This is just about thirty feet east of the train bridge as you exit the golf course;
the train tracks going east and west are directly below the source of water

As I was watching this, a ground hot crossed the water; there
is still a lot of urban wildlife 

View from Toe Blake Park

This isn't quite my final installment of what's happening at the St. Pierre River, only an update; now the section of the river that crosses Meadowbrook Golf Course is buried some landscaping is in the works. Planting some shrubs and bushes over the area that was buried. Photos taken on May 18, 2022.

What has been taken from nature can be restored to nature

I write about what interests me, what I see when I go out walking, what catches my eye, what I'm thinking about, what I like and what I don't like. I like nature, not the great outdoors but what's left of urban nature; I don't like more urban development. I haven't walked at Meadowbrook Golf Course very often but I was there a few weeks ago and it occurred me to that the remains of the river located there, and that were recently buried, can just as easily be restored; they haven't destroyed the St. Pierre River, they have only buried it. Remember that television show, what various cities would like if the population disappeared and civilization came to an end? It doesn't take long for nature to assert herself and civilization to disappear. My God! Just drive around Montreal and experience the craters in our city streets! There is one street where it's like an obstacle course, where I swerve around the potholes.

Walking to the golf course

Here is the trail along the train tracks to the back entrance to Meadowbrook Golf Course and then to the St. Pierre River. This was my walk on May 10th. There is a long history of people having gardens along railway tracks, you can still see some of them from the Westminster Bridge. In recent years the Canadian Pacific Railway has forced people off of this land which belongs to the railway. People grow vegetables, they aren't squatters. This trail (below) is on a ridge adjacent to the tracks, let's hope it remains as it is in perpetuity... because they're building condos on every square inch of land everywhere else.

 

How far did they get with burying the St. Pierre River?

Not far at all considering they were in such a rush to get construction begun and get the last remaining above ground section of the St. Pierre River buried... As of March 10, 2022 this is what they've done. By now, four months after this work was begun, maybe they could have fixed the source of the problem, private residences incorrectly connected to the waste water pipes, and possibly moved on to the next step, restoring segments of the St. Pierre River above ground. 

Any politician who championed restoring the river would have been considered a hero to the community, they would have been praised for their vision and long-term commitment and effort towards saving a little of the remaining nature in the city. Will a politician be remembered and praised because he promoted condo development? I don't think so. 

Photos taken looking over a fence into Meadowbrook Golf Course from Toe Blake Park in Montreal West.

Burying the St. Pierre River

This is the view of the St. Pierre River from Toe Blake Park, looking through or over the chain link fence between the park and Meadowbrook Golf Course. As can be seen, the work of burying the river hasn't been completed. Just a big mess left for the spring. 

The Nobility of Trees (1)

 

There is a nobility to these trees, standing solitary on this golf course; their presence is as though guarding this land. Where is the nobility of man? It is not often visible these days. Only a few hundred feet away the last above ground section of the St. Pierre River is being buried. 

Burying the St. Pierre River Has Begun

 

Yesterday morning I walked to Meadowbrook Golf Course; it was a beautiful sunny day, not a single cloud in the sky. Court ordered work to bury the last section of the St. Pierre River has begun. On the far right of the above satellite image you can the St. Pierre River, it's just below Toe Blake Park; the river runs in a fairly straight line until it meanders and then, finally, empties into a culvert at the train tracks. I learned a few things in high school Geography and one of them is that a meandering river is very old, that it was once a more powerful river but is not as powerful as it once was, when meeting obstacles it meanders around them rather than over them. However, this river may have never been anything but a creek; it begins as a stream on Mount Royal and then runs across the city to empty out at the St. Lawrence River. Of course, even Mount Royal was once a much larger mountain but has been worn down by erosion and time.

It must seem a big issue is being made of something fairly insignificant. What the river represents is the last vestige of a historical river, it represents the presence of nature in the built city environment that can be relentlessly soulless. All people need the presence of nature as a place to enjoy the outdoors and we know that the outdoors--a forest, a river, a field--gives meaning to life, it restores one spiritually, it recharges one's batteries. This is what the river and the golf course represent, even though most people will never walk here or see the river. That it exists and its possible future use as a nature reserve, a park, or still a golf course is what is important. It is important not to lose this land to more condo construction.

Here are some photographs of the burying of the river. I see that the plan is to dig a straight trench between where the river enters the golf course below Toe Blake Park and where it leaves at the culvert. This water will be diverted into culvert pipes.

This part of the river, that meanders, is cut off 

Egoût collecteur Rivière Saint-Pierre,1933

Here are historical photographs taken on 31 October 1933 showing the burying of the St. Pierre River. The only section of the St. Pierre River still above ground is in Meadowbrook Golf Course and it is slated to be buried. The question is, why? Because it is polluted with fecal matter from incorrectly connected sewer pipes near the golf course? Isn't the common sense thing to do is to stop the pollution, not bury the river? I suppose the cheaper thing to do is to bury the remaining exposed section of the river. But government has a lot of our money they can spend any way they want and common sense isn't something government is known to have. 

This is a section of the St. Pierre River before it was covered but not necessarily the same section as in
the photographs below ...