Endangered Fowler’s toad halts redevelopment at Waverly Beach

An endangered toad now outranks the bulldozer at Waverly Beach Park, where town studies have confined any construction to the already-developed corners of the property and the first concept plan awaits public comment.

The Town of Fort Erie has published its first concept landscape plan for the lakefront park and opened a resident survey that will shape the final design of a site layered in Indigenous history, Black history and the ruins of a former amusement park.

The environmental findings set the plan’s hard limits. Plan B Natural Heritage, the consulting firm the town hired, concluded in late 2025 that the park holds ecologically significant coastal and forest habitat along Lake Erie for migratory birds and wildlife.

The study identified several species at risk on site, the Fowler’s toad and red-headed woodpecker among them.

That critical habitat is protected under Ontario’s Species Conservation Act and the federal Species at Risk Act, so the town says any improvements must protect the sensitive natural areas and stay concentrated in the footprint of the park’s existing developed sections.

“Early discussions have identified opportunities for interpretive elements as well as planting that will help to provide habitat and restoration of the sensitive landscape,” said the Town of Fort Erie in a statement emailed to Fort Erie Radio.

A Stage 1 archaeological assessment by consultant ASI found human activity on the site stretching back thousands of years and flagged much of the property for a deeper Stage 2 investigation before any ground disturbance. That digging continues to the end of this summer.

The Niagara Movement, the civil rights group whose meetings at the Erie Beach Hotel in July 1905 helped form what became the NAACP, gathered on this ground 121 years ago this month.

The town says the existing Niagara Movement plaque remains a separate commemorative piece, though designers will weigh it so future elements remain consistent and respectful.

An engagement session at the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre on June 11 gathered feedback from local Indigenous communities, and a public session followed June 23 at the Leisureplex.

Mayor Wayne Redekop first spoke about plans for a multicultural legacy site at the park to Fort Erie Radio back in November.

Resident survey responses will guide the final Landscape Park Plan, which sets the park’s overall vision and the phasing options for construction. The town lists no closing date for the survey on its Let’s Talk webpage.

The archaeological work closes out the background studies at the end of summer 2026, clearing the path for the final plan.

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