V. B. Blake
E. J.
Zavitz
Dr. R. C.
Wallace
G.M. Wrong
Lois James
A man doesn’t plant a tree
Alexander Smith,
Hurt
not the earth,
As the poet said,
Woody Allen
Of all who plant
Anon
The tree
which moves some William Blake
Acts of
creation are ordinarily reserved for
gods and poets. Aldo Leopold
The first principle to go by
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Welcome
GANARASKA FOREST
Ganaraska Forest
on the Oak Ridges
Moraine
north of Port Hope represents one
of the most important conservation projects ever
undertaken
in Canada. It's establishment in 1947
transformed the whole approach to conservation
- with far reaching
effects
studied around the world.
By the late 1800s, Southern Ontario was one of the most
populated and densely settled areas in Canada.
Prior to WW II, most of the northern Ganaraska region was a barren expansive dust bowl and wasteland region - seen as "the Sahara of the North". Desertified and almost stripped of its trees, the landscape had become barren and unproductive. Countless farms were left abandoned as a result of extensive deforestation and poor agricultural practices.
Ganaraska wasteland area before
World War II (above) The early timber barons left huge barren wasteland areas. The first settlers viewed the remaining trees and forests as obstacles to be cleared for farmland. Topsoil was blown or washed away. In 1922, the Ontario government initiated the Agreement Forest Program with local municipalities which resulted in treeplanting on over 110,000 hectares (or 272,000 acres) of marginal lands. In 1938, the Federation of Ontario Naturalists published a study of the Oak Ridges Moraine, calling for its reforestation. Public perception of forestry and conservation began to improve: "Never before in Canada has so much interest been taken in the proper care and development of our forests..." (Forestry Chronicle Editorial, 1938) Flooding downstream in Port Hope was a major problem and regular event.
Floodwaters through downtown Walton Street, Port Hope For perhaps the first time in its history, Canada was turned back at the brink in the Ganaraska watershed through a remarkable effort at reforestation, forest management, and other soil conservation efforts which followed. Shortly thereafter, Ontario became the first province in Canada to develop a comprehensive conservation strategy in the postwar era, beginning with the Guelph Conference (1941). The Ganaraska watershed was selected as the initial test area which would soon mark the beginning of the first conservation authorities in Ontario. "In 1941, conservationists from across the province met in Guelph to address the extensive damage to southern Ontario's environment. Great tracts of land had been ruined through over cutting of the forest and through faulty farming practices. The conference, under the leadership of J.D. Thomas, chose the Ganaraska watershed, one of the most damaged in the province, as its pilot project. Over the next few years they worked to restore the natural values of the watershed, mostly by planting trees. Its restoration marked the beginning of the conservation authorities of Ontario. The Conservation Authorities Act was passed in 1946. Over the next four decades the Ganaraska watershed had become one of the largest forested areas of southern Ontario with two million trees planted."
Sauriol, Charles (1984). Tales of the Don. pp. 164, 165 * * * The Ganaraska Watershed study was undertaken at an unusual time - during WW II when most of Canada's resources were mandated to the war effort abroad. Co-sponsored by the Federal and Provincial Governments, the establishment of Ganaraska Forest was not only important on the Oak Ridges Moraine (a large hydrologically sensitive glacial ridge of great ecological significance), it also had an important role in flood control of Port Hope to the south, where the Eldorado Nuclear Refinery was situated (now known as Cameco). In 1942, the Canadian Government appointed a sub-committee headed by Dr. R.C. Wallace (Principal of Queen's University) and directed it to "consider and recommend…. the policy and programme appropriate to the most effective conservation and maximum future development of the natural resources of the Dominion of Canada." Dr. Wallace wrote the Introduction of the Ganaraska Watershed report published in 1944 and concluded it's content had far-reaching effects which would be: "...of general significance for the conservation and rehabilitation of all our resources throughout Canada." (A. H. Richardson, Conservation by the People: The History of the Conservation Movement in Ontario to 1970, (1974)
In the same year
(1942) as the Ganaraska Watershed study, the Eldorado Uranium Refinery in
nearby Port Hope was acquired by the Canadian Government and made into a Crown Corporation.
Highly classified and shrouded in top secrecy, Eldorado
played an important role in the war effort (it refined
the uranium used in world's first atomic bombings on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki).
Ontario
became the first province to develop a comprehensive conservation
strategy -
Steve Jobbitt, Recivilizing
the Land: Conservation and * * *
Ganaraska Forest
was the first large-scale reforestation conservation project on the Oak
Ridges Moraine. It is
also southern Ontario's largest continuous block of forest - located
within
the Counties of
Northumberland, Peterborough,
Kawartha Lakes (Victoria)
and the Region of Durham.
* * * Ganaraska Forest is now
part of Ontario's Greenbelt
- the world's largest greenbelt.
Without
the Ganaraska project as the blueprint and the acquisition
of conservation lands by the newly formed conservation authorities, two
of the greatest conservation achievements in Canadian history would
probably not have happened.
The world's largest greenbelt (Ontario's Greenbelt)
and one of the largest urban parks in the world (Rouge National Urban Park) would probably not exist today
without the initial study and follow-through of many of the
recommendations in the Ganaraska Watershed report published in 1944.
"... the Ganaraska Watershed area
is small; but its importance is greater than its size.
The area was deliberately chosen from the older settlement
areas of Eastern Canada to demonstrate what intensive
surveys and plans for future work should aim at. It
was undertaken not as a routine or maintenance survey, but
as a much needed piece of research in Canadian
conservation literature."
Dr. Robert C. Wallace,
Principal of Queen's University,
*
* *
Ganaraska Forest was the template.
The recommendations of the Ganaraska Watershed report (1944) was the model
for the R.D.H.P. Conservation Report (1956) which followed (Rouge and
neighboring watersheds) leading to the creation of Rouge
National Urban Park.
"While primarily a
study in land use with plans for the rehabilitation
of this particular watershed during the post-war
period, the Ganaraska Report would become the model for future conservation studies
throughout the Province of Ontario."
John
C. Carter, Ontario Conservation Authorities:
* * *
Both the Ganaraska and Rouge conservation reports
included the same
principal authors, A. H. Richardson,
Forest Engineer from Toronto and
V. B. Blake, lead historian
from the Ganaraska area north of Port Hope.
Appointed by the Canadian
Government to head up the Ganaraska study,
Dr. R. C. Wallace, the Principal of
Queen's University wrote the introductory chapter of the Ganaraska
Watershed report.
Finding the historical section
most interesting, Dr. Wallace recommended its inclusion in the Ganaraska
report. A local history section as part of the conservation reports
which followed assured the interest and support of the politicians and general
public. It also led to the success of the newly formed conservation authorities
and numerous conservation projects which followed. Verschoyle Blake was
the lead historian for almost all of the conservation
reports in the province.
The Ganaraska region
was the first watershed to demonstrate new concepts like the
ecosystem approach and watershed based conservation planning (based on
natural rather than political boundaries).
The establishment of Ganaraska Forest was
the first act of landscape planning in
Ontario - it considered natural features and processes
in their entirety.
Beyond
Site: The Ganaraska Forest Reborn
“One of the most remarkable things about the
Ganaraska Forest is that its story begins with the first act of landscape planning in Ontario
that looked beyond site to consider natural features
and processes in their entirety…
In 1942, after several decades of surveying,
documenting, and disseminating information about the
spread of wastelands in Southern Ontario, and the
need for a comprehensive reforestation program, a
report on the Ganaraska Watershed was issued by the
Government of Ontario, Department of Lands and
Forests (which would later become the Ministry of
Natural Resources).
Karen
May,
Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation * * *
Ganaraska Forest was
the catalyst which led to the creation of the first
conservation authorities in Canada, the first
conservation legislation, a conservation model for
other watershed areas and provided a blueprint for
acquiring conservation lands. Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities own and operate over 500 conservation areas and collectively are among the largest public landowners of the most valuable real estate in Canada (a total land area of 145,357 hectares (359,185 acres).
The Ganaraska Forest is owned and managed today by the Ganaraska Region
Conservation Authority.
Ganaraska Forest and Ontario's Greenbelt
The establishment of
Ganaraska Forest
in 1947 marked
the beginning of the conservation movement
in Ontario and
set in motion a series of events which
eventually led to the creation of the largest greenbelt in
the world (Ontario's Greenbelt, 2005 -
over two
million acres). "As the
world’s largest greenbelt at 1.8 million acres... Ontario
Ministry Municipal Affairs and Housing
* * *
The Ganaraska project
demonstrated the benefits of
conservation and showed for the first time how resources (water,
land, forests, wildlife and recreation) be considered together through a
coordinated programme of resource management.
The Ganaraska Watershed (1944) report
also led to the passing of the first
Conservation Authorities Act in 1946 and the creation of first
conservation authorities in Ontario.
The CA
Act was significant within the broad context of Canadian environmental
history in that it marked a revival of state-sponsored conservation in
Canada.
"1946: The Conservation
Authorities Act was passed, enabling
municipalities to apply for the
establishment of conservation
authorities in their areas. The Ganaraska Survey was intended to
be the model for the study on which each
authority was to base its work."
Greening Our Watersheds - Revitalization
Strategies
* * *
The recommendations in The Ganaraska
Watershed (1944) report formed a foundation for the conservation authority movement in
Ontario and have been studied around the world:
"The
conservation authority movement in Ontario is world renowned,
and professionals and parliamentarians from other provinces, the
United States, the United Kingdom, and other parts of the world
have come to study it."
A.H. Richardson, Conservation by
the People (1974)
* * *
The Ganaraska report (1944) was the first study to
include the components of a modern day greenbelt plan (forests,
agricultural and recreational lands and wetlands). One of it's key
recommendations was the establishment of a 20,000 acre forest
(Ganaraska Forest). The Greenbelt
has many benefits:
Ontario's Greenbelt connects Field to
Fork Alternatives Journal, * * *
In January, 2013, the Ontario Government announced additional public lands in the river valleys of southern Ontario will become part of a new Urban River Valley designation in Ontario's Greenbelt - increasing the size of the largest greenbelt in the world to almost two million acres.
Minister Linda
Jeffrey of the Ministry of Conservation Pioneers Dr. Edmund J. Zavitz (1875-1968) E. J. Zavitz was the first Chief of Reforestation in Ontario (The Ganaraska Report (1944) p.xii). From a early report published in 1908, Zavitz is given credit for expressing the first conservation vision for the Ganaraska and Oak Ridges Moraine area: "Extending through Northumberland and Durham Counties is a sand formation locally known as the "Oak Ridge" or "Pine Ridge"... It is safe to say that seventy-five percent is wholly unfit for successful farming... These areas should be preserved for the people of Ontario as recreation grounds for all time to come... The policy of putting these lands under forest management has many arguments in its favour... It will pay as a financial investment; assist in insuring a wood supply; protect the headwaters of streams; provide breeding ground for wild game; provide object lessons in forestry; and prevent citizens from developing under conditions which can end only in failure."
Report on the Reforestation of Waste Lands in Southern
Ontario, 1908,
More than any other man, it was Zavitz who planted the seeds of a modern day greenbelt plan more than a century ago as shown in the above 1908 report. Immediately following the Guelph Conference in 1941, Ganaraska was selected as the first pilot project. A. H. Richardson (1890-1971) Upon his graduation in 1920, A. H. Richardson became the long-time assistant to Dr. Zavitz (above noted) in the Forestry Branch of the Department of Lands and Forests. Under the mentoring and direction of Zavitz, Richardson became known as a skilled communicator when it came to building public awareness of forestry matters. Richardson also helped to coordinate the practical end of the government's treeplanting efforts. During WW2, A.H. Richardson was appointed by the Ontario Government to organize the Ganaraska study. V.B. Blake (1899-1971) Verschoyle Benson Blake was well respected as a pioneer historian, historic preservationist, archivist, conservationist and Ganaraska area resident.The Public Meeting of the Port Hope Historical Society (formerly East Durham) on March 18, 2009 drew much public attention with one of the best turnouts ever. The unusually strong attendance was probably in response to the Press Release written by Ron Getz, President which read:
V . B. Blake arrived in the Ganaraska region (north of Port Hope) in 1926. He became known as “the quiet conservationist” and was very knowledgeable about history, particularly in the Ganaraska area. Blake played a key role in the Ganaraska Forest project (he helped compile it) and was the only Ganaraska area resident on the initial Ganaraska survey team.V.B. Blake was also certainly influenced by two of the greatest academic scholars of the time, his uncle, G. M. Wrong (1860-1948) - University of Toronto History Professor and Author and Dr. R.C. Wallace (1881-1955) - Principal of Queen's University. Blake's strong interest also included Canada's built heritage and he was a founding member of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario in 1933, along with C. Vincent Massey. Both men had country properties along the Ganaraska River, named Ardfree and Batterwood respectively. Blake also worked on the St. Lawrence Seaway project (early cemeteries). During the 1950's, V.B. Blake also helped organize the Provincial Plaques Program in Ontario. V.B. Blake also served on the Advisory Committees for both Upper Canada Village and Black Creek Pioneer Village and was also instrumental in establishing Barnum House in Grafton as a museum (the primary reason the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario was first established in 1933). In 1959, Barnum House became a National Historic Site of Canada. Blake worked as a historian with the Government of Ontario and joined the Ontario Department of Planning and Development, Conservation Branch in 1944. V.B Blake became Supervisor of the Historical section of the Conservation Authorities Branch when it began publishing historical studies for various geographically defined conservation areas across Ontario - beginning with the Ganaraska Watershed report (1944).
Blake's work reflected the natural linkage between history and conservation for the first time -- the general public (and public officials) not only found this historical material interesting but were better able to understand the technical recommendations of the conservation reports. Other conservation reports also opened with Blake's historical backdrops which were essentially the first major conservation blueprints for the respective watersheds from which most modern day conservation achievements can be traced.
Blake's
work
remains a goldmine of information to this day - he Today, Blake is still regarded as: "the Dean of Local Historians ... there hasn’t been anybody like him since…”
Carl
Thorpe, Retired
Manager |