I'm not exactly sure how the flag-pole will lead swimmers into any undertow (maybe there's some other bit of equipment and you don't mean fishing them out with the Blue Flag itself, not that it's not a bad idea ;) but looking into just what a Blue Flag means and what it is when you get it home, I think I may have a partial answer on where that Trillium money has gone ... it's one and the same with the flag and the recently rebranded EDC (nee Canadian Environmental Defence Fund)...

The City of Toronto pay Environmental Defense Canada up to $25,000 on an annual basis, subject to the approval of Toronto Water’s Operating Budget, for application fees and related monitoring costs for the Blue Flag Program for all eligible Toronto beaches ...

Apparently Toronto is also required to pay an additional $25,000 to host the EDC General Meeting. Details are in the Staff Report from the Works Committee, April 18, 2005. Could be the life-line pole was all we could afford after the monitoring services and administration fees, and a necessary expense to meet with the BF 'safety requirement; and maybe I was right the first time and the flag pole is going to be doing double duty :)

As to the real point of all this, maybe I know squat about modern marketing I totally agree with you, I really don't think the average beach-goer gives two hoots about any formal designations or what gang-colours the Chamber sports, they only really care what they see of safety and sanity with their own two eyes, and what percolates through the grapevine about the times to be had along the beach. True, you don't win any press coverage for just having a great beach anymore, but truth be told, journalists don't really spend much on bikinis and sunscreen either.

No one answers my question. Do a bit of digging and see who runs Environmental Defense.

Because it wasn't included in their FAQ, and no, there's no mention in there who actually runs Environmental Defense (please do enlighten us!) but I did fire off an email to ask the BF people just how it might work that their designation could be used as a marketing hook to drive more foot traffic while simultaneously claiming the program would protect the Beach.

Here's the email I sent:

I understand that beaches can apply for BF status, and I understand from the report of the Works Committee on the City of Toronto website that the Environmental Defence Canada (or some other BF agent?) will conduct routine surveys of compliance to the BF brand licensing requirements, and do so, in Toronto's case, for a pretty substantial fee of $25,000, but how does the Blue Flag program actually _protect_ our environment? My apologies for asking a confrontational question, please do not take offense but I'm concerned that the Blue Flag status is being used by the qualifying beaches as a marketing tool to attract _more_ casual (and careless) day-traffic, thereby further endangering the very ecosystems and species your program claims to protect, and I'm only trying to understand just how this all works towards the stated goals of the program.

Notice I said nothing about Sauble per se, but admittedly did ask straight out about the fees. Here's their response:

The Blue Flag program assesses a beach against 27 criteria categorized under water quality, environmental management, environmental education, safety & services. A beach must meet these criteria in order to receive a Blue Flag and must maintain these standards in order to receive a Blue Flag each year. The program helps to protect the beach because, for example, a criterion under environmental management requires that the beach operator protect any sensitive areas at the beach. Hanlan's Point is a good example of this criterion at work. The dune system at Hanlan's has been degraded due to foot traffic. The City has fenced off specific areas to allow natural regeneration, posted signs about dune conservation and is constructingboardwalk in key areas to control access through the dunes. Another example, none of the City's beaches had recycling containers, but they have been put in place as part of the Blue Flag initiative.

We are also working with the community around Sauble Beach to achieve a Blue Flag. Sauble Beach has been rated as one of Canada's best beaches. Through the program we are able to support, for example, the construction of boardwalk to protect the dune ecosystem, interpretive signs and brochures about the unique flora & fauna and the installation of lifesaving equipment, which the beach has never had!

We expect that most beaches that apply for a Blue Flag will already be high traffic beaches. The Blue Flag brand tells people that the beach operator is maintaining specific standards, so while it makes the beach more attractive to potential users and a benefit to tourism, it also means that the use of the beach is being managed to higher standards and more is expected of people who go. The program, in other places, has actually made people more aware about their conduct at the beach. They pick up litter, keep their dogs off the beach, participate in educational programs, etc.

The Works Committee Report that you reviewed on the City of Toronto's website refers to the initial research, review and consultations we conducted for 14 beaches in order to launch the program. In the future the City will be required to pay an annual application fee only, which will be around $1,000, Environmental Defence is a charitable organization, so we aren't running the program to make a profit. We have also received grants From additional funders to build the program in Ontario. You can check out our supporters/partners on www.BlueFlag.ca .

I hope this answers some of your questions. Please feel free to contact me at any time. I will be away on vacation until Aug 8th, so I won't be able to get back to you until then.

Sincerely,

Sarah Winterton
Programme Director
Environmental Defence
705 - 317 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, ON M5V 1P9

Google is a good friend to have: As to the man in the photo with the seal pup, Rick Smith of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) ...

"...For more information, please contact: Dr.
Rick Smith, Executive Director, Environmental Defence"

Environmental Defense calls itself a "nonprofit environmental law firm" and is mentioned often in the same context as the Sierra Club of Canada.

"Is there more?" he asks, gingerly ...

Some of you have probably caught my link to the Sauble Beach E.Coli Readings Page, which, on the surface of it is a darn good idea, rest some people's worries, meet the future head on and all that, and it's part of that service under the banner of the Blue Flag after all.

Only what do we find when we get there? Last data point was taken not last week, but last month! Hardly useful, marginally informative and likely very pointless since the spring and early summer are generally clear times even for the worst beaches, but it's the high-traffic warm-water still waters of deepest mid-summer that, IIRC, brings the most concerns over bacteria counts out at Wasaga or down on the Toronto shoreline.

So I wrote to them, to tell them how much I appreciated this public service and how, probably nobody's fault, the transfer of the fresh data to the page has been, shall we say, suspended, stuck, broken.

Two weeks later ... there's been no reply

Did anyone notice the new life saving stations along the beach? A /Life Saver/ flotation device on a rope, and a large hook attached to poles that have signs warning about theft.Well..I guess the life saver could come in handy..but the hook is meant to reach from either a deck of a boat or the edge of a pool..in Saubles shallow waters..if you have to use a hook to get someone in deep water..you too will be in deep water..but more important than that.They are located at the base of the dunes../ oh a swimmer in trouble..Ill get the life saver..runs 100 yards back grabs the life saver while gasping for air, then jogs or drops on the way../...and so the story goes...

"protect the dune ecosystem, interpretive signs and brochures about the unique flora & fauna and the installation of lifesaving equipment, which the beach has never had!"

are the boats at the dunes environmentally protected..and does that mean anyone can use this as their own public boat storage and launch area..instead of the proper launch?? (Go ahead Robbie answer).

I remember the sailboats being there forty years ago. The boats have changed and the dunes are higher that is all. It is a tradition that spans generations.

Sixty five years ago there were no dunes and there are photos around to prove it. Now some of them are blocking the view from waterfront properties. The way the friends are carrying on you would think we are dealing with a ten thousand year old geological artifact instead of the shifting sands of time. Or is it there is a time when sands shift?

There should be a maxmum height restriction after which you bulldoze them and start again. I have seen the research and the only way to kill the beach grass is to drive on it or wash it out. It's survival is always a compromise but that is the way nature works.

The dunes are just not that delicate. They are a great place to spend an afternoon when the hot sun and a cold wind are there to greet you. Surprise, surprise, the friends and blue flag want to ban you from the dunes to satisfy some sort of green fantasy du jour.

Dream on.

Free parking was also a tradition..;) But to your point about the dunes, Gary had mentioned that just awhile back over a pint of black at the horn, about talking to a driver that actually brought in sand for the dunes.But to be fair, its not the dunes per se that are special, it is the rare plants. I dont know a lot about the friends or their make up, but I feel that us here at SBP do more to help everything in the community by speaking openly, freely, and listening to each other, than the status quo.

...and still I would like to see someone make a mad dash to those lifesavers.......

The following are selected keywords used in the source code of the home page of the "friends" .

These keywords presented should give one a pretty good idea of what they are really about and who/what is driving their efforts in spending Ontarians' money (at least $75,000 in Trillium money so far).

"Friends of Sauble Beach, sand, beach, sun, Sauble, friends, sunsets, excitement, fun, seashore, park, shopping, waves, surf, surfing, fishing derby, fishing, boating, sailing, windsurfing, tan, lazy, reading, suntan, kids, sand castles, icecream, french fries, stock cars, racing, baby contest"

What stock cars, icecream, french fries, being lazy, fishing derbys and suntans have to do with dune preservation, I just don't know....

Anyone care to guess who and what is driving the "friends"?

The dunes at Sauble are, and have always been, NATURALLY OCCURRING!

To say otherwise spits in the face of logic and science...umm, and I'll throw in "common sense" for good measure.

I read a comment or two in this and other threads within the Peninsular's pages regarding "spoken lore" of how the dunes were built 65 years ago. Utter nonsense. So I suppose these myth-speakers have some sort of rationalization as to how the ancient successional dune formations found further inland (eastward) got there. Prehistoric dump trucks?

In order to put this silliness to rest, once and for all, I contacted Geoff Peach, a staff member of the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation. He has heard all of this "dunes were man-made" spiel before.

Geoff states "The dunes at Sauble Beach are natural. I sought out historical photographs of the dunes at Sauble Beach as I too was told by some that dunes had never existed 60+ years ago. The photos that people sent to me dated from the 1930's and 40's and clearly show extensive dune systems in place. It would make no sense geomorphologically for them NOT to be there. I have no doubt that sand mining occurred back then, and likely large gaps in the dunes resulted from this mining activity. But the dunes were there, and the mined gaps eventually were restored naturally, although current demand for beach use has caused some stresses in recent years. I suspect that those making these statements are trying very hard to justify clearing away the dune for their personal benefit. Their comments have no scientific merit. I have physical proof in the form of historic photographs that the dunes were present during the time period cited. I have seen no information to the contrary, and don't expect to."

I have included a bio of Geoff, should anyone want to continue to foster this myth by dismissing Geoff as an unknown quantity. Of course, if anyone here wishes to continue believing that the dunes are man-made, or might be man-made, then by all means do so at your own discretion.

About Geoff Peach

Geoff is also a member of the Canadian Coastal Science and Engineering Association.

No one seems to want to question the validity of my last post, but here's another thought...

If the dunes were man-made, as has been suggested by some, then...

...why are there no references to the (surely) monumental task of building them in the archives of our staid Wiarton Echo or the Sun Times? No mention in the history books of Amabel Township. Nary a word...

One would think that, in the day, the sight of myriad dump trucks bringing load upon load (I'm no expert, but c'mon, we're talking 1000's of dump truck loads here folks!) to the beach would have garnered some sort of press. This would have been big news, yet nary a mention in any rag's archives.

... how the ancient successional dune formations found further inland (eastward) got there.

well, for one thing, when I dug a bit in my own local successional dune formations here by the Sauble River, we found bits of prehistoric garden hose and a jurassic automobile radiator.

This makes me wonder if we are talking about the same dunes, and indeed while there may have been dunes and plants along Lakeshore between Main and the KitWat pre-1945, with the road construction, drainage, beach house, tennis courts, marina and boat-launch, are we to believe these are the same dunes standing there today?

But I'll concede that perhaps you're right. I find it suspicious there are no ancient remains, old stumps and the like, or that this coastline bears little resemblance to just the other side of the Sauble River basin or just south of the Saugeen beach (long since combed 100% dune free? do we have photos of that mammoth construction?) but I will concede that I wasn't here, and I'm not a geologist, just someone who was lead astray by the gossip.

I originlly posed the title of this blog-thread as a question about Blue Flag.

Sabrinus and others have well answered the question of the immediate value of the Blue Flag beach program. It has zero value at Sauble. These comments are in the forum "Pipe-Dream Alive and Kicking" which makes it difficult to follow in this Blue Flag thread. Perhaps they can be moved over here?

Like the shifting sand the discussion has changed direction and I want to return to the Deep Green style environmental activist Rick Smith and finish the discussion of the question.

Rick Smith and his organization, Environmental Defense are strongly in the anti development camp. Mayor Noble is pro development with strong beliefs that increasing assessment is the only way to run the town's fiscal affairs.

The fact is that Environmental Defense may well be a future friend to those who have recently killed development supporting infrastructure and want it to stay dead. I saw the Mayor supporting Blue Flag in months gone by and I wondered if he knew he was holding hands with his philosophical polar opposite? Likely not!

This discussion is relevant because the concept of sustainable development has been embraced in every facet of the Federal Government's dealings and Federal money is not coming to South Bruce to pay for any current or future projects before successful completion of a sustainable development EA. The project to combine small water systems at Sauble is stalled on just this point. The Feds won't pay without an EA but an EA means public scrutiny for the politicians.

What is a Deep Green or a Deep Ecologist? It is an activist or in the case of Environmental Defense an activist movement that believes environment and species protection takes precedence over any other issue or problem. They oppose most economic uses of the natural environment. They argue that any form of development is a direct threat to it's sustainability. This is not a bad thing and the Ontario Green Belt is typical of the result of this type of activism.

The IFAW is credited with destroying the economy of some Canadian outposts. Mr Smith's time with the IFAW has proven he has little respect for people and jobs.

Yet in a July 29 Toronto Star article, The Spectre Of Extinction, Mr Smith and all said, "When the Monarch Butterfly flits by, can we be assured that our grandchildren will be able to enjoy the same experience in years to come? So far, we can take for granted the cry of the loon, the howl of the wolf and the sweet syrup of the sugar maple. But is it just a matter of time before these familiar neighbours also edge onto the endangered species list and then fade to oblivion? That may be the inevitable consequence of decision-makers who think only in four-year terms."

Is Rick Smith useful? Yes, to a point and I like his style. Banding together with other organizations lends legitimacy. Environmental Defense could be a useful friend in the fight to keep the developers at bay. This is a positive for Blue Flag. Bonus.

Future topics: What does the term "sustainable development" mean?
Sands of history. Garym's dig site in a 1925 photo.
Coastal research. Is the science biased? Pedestrians and cars are not equal.