Public Notice

Trail and Parking Lot Construction – Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area  – Public Comments Invited

July 18th 2025 – The authority must determine whether the proposed Trail and Parking Lot Construction at Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this determination, the authority is inviting comments from the public respecting that determination. All comments received will be considered public and may be posted online.

 

Written comments must be submitted by August 22, 2025 to:

John Viengkone

Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service

4905 Dufferin St., Toronto, ON M3H 5T4

416-884-5148

John.Viengkone@ec.gc.ca

 

The Proposed Project

Environment and Climate Change Canada – Canadian Wildlife Service (ECCC-CWS) is proposing to construct two new trail segments (approx. 475m in length) and a parking lot (approx. 800m²) at Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area, located in Milford, Ontario. 

Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area (PEPNWA) is one of 10 National Wildlife Areas across the country designated as a Connecting Canadians to Nature site to provide opportunities for people to experience and connect with nature. Following this designation, PEPNWA has seen a significant increase in visitors. Lack of well signed formal trails on site have resulted in visitors exploring the National Wildlife Area in an ad hoc manner and creating unauthorized trails from the municipal road into the NWA in various locations. 

The proposed construction of connector trail segments and a new parking lot align with the PEPNWA Management Plan goals to support the Connecting Canadians to Nature initiative. These changes will reduce visitor use of the municipal road alleviating health and safety concerns and facilitate navigation on site to manage visitor impact within a relatively small footprint adjacent to already developed areas (municipal road and PEPNWA boundary fencing). 

The proposed work will be completed within ECCC's species at risk timing windows between November 2025 and March 2026. Prior to any work commencing, wildlife exclusion fencing will be installed where appropriate, and the work area will be searched by qualified individuals to remove any wildlife. Exposed soil and excavated material will be re-graded, stabilized and/or re-seeded using appropriate soils, seed mix and seed application at the completion of construction. Sediment and erosion control will be used where necessary.