FLYING SQUIRRELS TO DUFFERIN

RED HILL VALLEY FLYING SQUIRREL TO DELIVER LETTER TO DUFFERIN
CONSTRUCTION CORPORATE HEAD OFFICE THURSDAY, JULY 31, 11:00 a.m.

WHEN: 11:00 a.m., Thursday, July 31, 2003
WHERE: 690 Dorval Drive, Suite 200, Oakville, On.
A flying squirrel, a tree, and possibly other creatures or plants from Hamilton's Red Hill Valley will journey to Oakville on Thursday as part the struggle to keep the Valley, the jewel of Hamilton's east end, free of an expressway.
The ShowStoppers will be delivering a letter to Dufferin Construction Company, the company recently awarded the contract to construct a ramp to the expressway-to-be at Greenhill Ave., on the eastern side of the Red Hill Valley.
Flying squirrels (Glaucomys volans), designated a "species of special concern" by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSWIC), will only cause greater concern if they have to negotiate a four-lane expressway in the valley. At least 41,000 trees are to be levelled in the building of the $220 million expressway. Some of those trees will be bulldozed to construct the ramp at Greenhill Ave.
Construction of the Greenhill Ramp could start as early as August 5.
The ShowStoppers have vowed to use every peaceful means to stop the Red Hill Expressway, including, well, dressing up like squirrels! They have held camp-outs at the site, as well as non-violent civil disobedience workshops.
Please join the ShowStoppers as we go to Dufferin Construction's Oakville HQ and present our letter and a tree-seedling in the hope that Dufferin General Manager Lloyd Ferguson (brother of Hamilton Councillor Murray Ferguson ) will join us in planting, not paving the valley.