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© Lora Denis
Mills Block Forest © Laura Paxton
It’s one of those mornings when I really love my job.
Our staff have gathered at Mills Block Forest, a conservation area managed by the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority in Thunder Bay. There is a brief moment of calm with only spring peepers and a few crows breaking the silence before an explosion of activity. Almost without warning, there is a stampede of rubber boots as two busloads of young children arrive. They are here to help us kick off a BioBlitz where we will count as many different species of plants and animals as we can over 24 hours.
I admit that it fills me with pride to watch our staff interact with the kids, the media, and the experts who are lined up to help our swarm of young citizen scientists collect data.
There is Jake, our newest summer intern. Despite the fact that it’s his first day on the job, he seems happy and relaxed. He has all of the kids (and me) laughing as he provides instructions for making a turtle craft. He is skillfully keeping everyone occupied while we queue up tours through the conservation area.
Mallory, our conservation education specialist, hurries around with her clipboard and seems to effortlessly coordinate with the patience of a lioness watching over her pride. The weeks of work she has put into organizing this event are paying off. Everyone is excited and engaged.
Over the course of the two-day Bioblitz, 149 participants identified 112 species including (but not limited to) 40 forest plants, 31 bird species, 22 invertebrates, 6 reptiles and amphibians, and 4 mammals. Results were added to the online citizen science platform, iNaturalist.
This is what conservation authorities (CAs) mean to me. Their staff help us do what we do best – connect people with nature. We are so privileged to be able to visit this natural space that has representations of diverse ecosystems, a well-maintained trail access, and helps us cultivate these connections. When we are able to make these connections between people and the natural environment, we help develop a lasting appreciation for nature and an understanding that we all depend on it – and that we must protect it.
The government has recently posted a public survey that sets the stage to limit CAs’ scope and mandate. Limiting the mandate of CAs could open the floodgates for unchecked development, threatening our communities’ flood plains, drinking water, biodiversity, natural heritage and more.
If the government wants to help “preserve and protect Ontario’s natural spaces”, as the survey states, they should have made the survey easier for Ontarians to provide genuine feedback. Instead, the survey is dense and lengthy and that’s why we have developed a resource to help you respond to it.
The government survey is now closed.
Conservation authorities have been standing up for our communities for decades – now, it’s time for us to stand up for them.
© Lena Morrison
The Flooding River of My Youth
I was born on the east bank of an important Canadian Heritage River (“the River”), and spent my childhood and adolescence within 1400m of the water’s edge.
Two centuries ago, early settlers arrived in a watershed that was essentially one large forest; in the central part, grassland and tall-grass prairie were common. Opened to settlement in the 1800s, the landscape of the River’s watershed was degraded as prairie was plowed and tiled for farms, and forest was paved over for towns and industry. Built structures encroached in the river channel, reducing the capacity of the River and its tributaries to respond to heavy rainstorms and summer droughts. As rivers and streams were dammed for power and transportation, their waters warmed and grew murky with sediment. Native species lost their habitats, and invasive species took hold when forests were cut down and wetlands drained and “in-filled.” This loss of wetlands and forests contributed to a disastrous cycle of dry riverbeds in summer, and increasingly severe and frequent floods in the spring.
Growing up by the River, I witnessed first-hand the ruinous consequences of inapt land use, inadequate planning and clumsy development. Over the years, severe flood after flood devastated the River communities, destroying property and livestock. One spring, during an afternoon in mid-May, the River’s waters rose rapidly and the flood carried everything before it. Cars were transported in the flood for blocks. Store windows broke under the pressure of swiftly surging water, or were smashed by trees, logs and other debris from up river. Along the main street merchandise of all sorts floated away on the current. There was extensive damage to contents and stock of many commercial and residential buildings. Families in the region were forced to evacuate their homes, and a municipality declared a state of emergency when its water treatment plant ceased to function.
Industry, small businesses and residents suffered millions of dollars of damage, including:
the cost of business dislocation, loss of profits and ruined stock;
the cost of rescuing people trapped in upper storeys of buildings;
the cost of cleaning up debris, muck and grime deposited by flood waters.
On flooded farmlands, valuable topsoil washed away from farms, gravel waste was deposited on fields, and soils were so saturated with flood water that crop planting was delayed, diminishing farmers’ financial returns.
To this day, I carry a vivid recollection of that flood and its ravages – the shocking sight of our downtown submerged under rushing waters, the damage to shops and offices, and the loss, hardship and expense borne by our neighbours. Today, residents of the watershed are safer as a result of lessons learned from heavy floods like the one I recall here, as many flood control measures and communications procedures were developed in response to such significant flooding events.
Managing Flood-Risk: Conservation Authorities
The River’s Conservation Authority has worked for decades to protect what remains of the original watershed ecosystem and restore what has been lost in an effort to revive the natural resiliency of the watershed and improve its biodiversity. To that end, the Authority has planted more than 30 million trees throughout the River’s watershed. By the turn of the 20th century, forest cover had declined from eighty-five to about six per cent as land was cleared for farms and settlements. Now after many decades of tree planting and natural regeneration, forests cover about 19 per cent of the watershed.
Rivers and streams are improved, grasslands and tall-grass prairie re-established, wetlands restored, rehabilitated and even recreated – all moderating the ebb and flow of the River and its tributaries through the seasons, reducing floods during the spring melt and keeping rivers flowing in periods of summer drought.
No Ontarian, and no government that claims to represent the interests of Ontarians, can afford to ignore the tragic and devastating history of poor watershed management and over-exploitation which led to the creation of Conservation Authorities in the last century. Now, more than ever, we need the expertise of our Conservation Authorities to respond effectively to the economic, public health and climate challenges confronting this province.
Quote; Limiting the mandate of CAs could open the floodgates for unchecked development, threatening our communities’ flood plains, drinking water, biodiversity, natural heritage and more.
Looks like Fort McMurray could use a CA. People rebuilding on a predictable floodplain right after a flood has destroyed their homes sounds like insanity.
Hello. Why does Mills Block Forest have the name that it does? What does it mean? Thanks.
Hi. I sent you a message earlier today about not being able to submit the survey. It seems that the problem is fixed. After I sent an e-mail to ontario.ca, I gained access to the survey. Thanks for making me aware of this survey. Hopefully, they got a good response in favor of importance of the conservation authority. It took me a long time to respond even with your background information you provided so I don’t know how the general public is supposed to do it otherwise. Keep me informed. Thanks again, Rakka.
I tried to prepare a submission for the Survey On Ontario Conservation Authorities but when I clicked on the link today, it says “You are not authorized to access this page”. I thought we could submit today because the deadline is today. Usually with goverment, you have until midnight that day. I am probably not the only one who has left this until today. So disappointed. If there is anything I can do let me know.
Thanks, Rakka. (I went to Lakehead University)