From Activist to Nature Watcher for Awhile
Beginning in late June, at a time when my wife and I were busy planning our summer travel and antiquing adventures, the proverbial poop hit the rapidly spinning fan. We found out, via the local newspaper that our Bog (municipally owned but part of our neighborhood plan of subdivision), here at Birch Hollow, our home in Gravenhurst, was to be sold off as surplus property. Beware of the cash strapped municipality with a new town hall on their “want list!”
While we were assured this was an annual right of passage for Ontario municipalities, to offer up properties no longer required in their future planning, what was suspicious was the amount of high priced real estate hitting the market at the same time. This wasn’t typical and selling off a needed wetland was well beyond a sensible fundraising mission.
If you’re interested in the fight we had to save The Bog, you can click onto our other blog site………. which documents the basics of our protest….which we won by the way…..the municipality acknowledging that sacrificing a wetland for the sake of a few more urban residential lots wasn’t particularly sensible. We had help from many organizations and hundreds of people across our community, who let the Town know what natural resource stewardship meant. I don’t believe the Town of Gravenhurst liked being told to back off or else. It was on the brink of being a huge national protest well beyond a blog and some conversational ill humour, when sensibility and clear thinking won out, and the matter was dropped for the time being. It is unlikely residents here will ever forget this foray…..and be so complacent as to believe there won’t be another battle another day….that would make five bids by the Town since the 1970’s to subdivide this important Muskoka wetland.
From late June until late August there wasn’t one clear day when something or other needed our attention, in order to keep our mission to Save The Bog on track. It swallowed up a lot of time, and took its toll emotionally on everyone involved. What it represented to us from the beginning, was a fight against poor urban planning…..and we knew that if the town could destroy this wetland….which was part of the parkland designation of our subdivision from the late 1970’s, and infill this filtering bed of run-off water to Lake Muskoka, then it would be the ultimate sign of inherent power that council could move on to even more contentious, more aggressive plans, to strip the landscape to suit expansionary interests. Urban sprawl. The developers were watching our little protest, without a doubt, and what they saw was a citizen population band together to remind local government that they aren’t immune from serious intervention when required. In this period of mounting and warranted environmental concern around the globe, it was clear the citizens in our community were paying attention…..and not about to let our elected officials do what ever they want…..without consequence.
We could look back at any time throughout the process, and see the troops mustering, and I have to tell you, that was what kept us to task. We weren’t doing this alone. And when we heard that council had changed its mind, and removed The Bog from the surplus property list, well, it was one of the most memorable days in our family history. Community history was made. Town hall listened to ratepayers. For all the critters, the deer, rabbits, fox, wolves, a bear or two, birds of every feather, a trillion insects and water creatures,…..suffice to say, they came awfully close to being homeless. The Bog now is a lasting, slightly more secure safe haven. It could have been that this beautiful 20 plus acre greenbelt was sacrificed for another condo project, yet another residential street at a time when there are loads of family homes for sale. I can’t tell you how heart breaking it would have been to sit here, attempting to write for a living, and hearing the chainsaw massacre just beyond my office window. Well, as I noted in the local press here, I would have been in front of the chainsaw blade in protest that’s for sure…..and that would have been the only way I could justify having a broken heart. There was no other option.
It hasn’t been a normal fall season at Birch Hollow due to the delays in just about everything we had during the summer. Our old book business had been on hiatus for most of the summer, and we cut down our public sales events to two, which is a quarter of what we normally do in any given tourist season here in Muskoka. So it has taken a bit longer this autumn to get everything back on track, including our boys’ music and collectable business, on the main street here in Gravenhurst, which is having a tremendous year. While we’re happy about the successes of the year so far, we’re still a little “wobbly legged” about the dark side outcome that might have prevailed, had we not found that first newspaper article, back in June, telling us our neighborhood was on the cusp of profound change. When we get up in the morning we look out on the woodlands to make sure everything is well…..and that the town hasn’t re-visited the project, and when we close up the homestead at night, we always take one final glance over to The Bog, to make sure we’ve passed safely toward yet another day here in the Ontario hinterland.
There’s a contentment that I almost feel guilty possessing since our victory…..but I’m going to enjoy it for awhile longer but never again will I be so complacent as to believe the progressives have given up the fight for more urban land……but rather are re-forming to fight yet another day.
I hope now to update this blog-site more regularly thanks to a generally peaceful autumn season unfolding.
Thanks for visiting this Gravenhurst site.
Beginning in late June, at a time when my wife and I were busy planning our summer travel and antiquing adventures, the proverbial poop hit the rapidly spinning fan. We found out, via the local newspaper that our Bog (municipally owned but part of our neighborhood plan of subdivision), here at Birch Hollow, our home in Gravenhurst, was to be sold off as surplus property. Beware of the cash strapped municipality with a new town hall on their “want list!”
While we were assured this was an annual right of passage for Ontario municipalities, to offer up properties no longer required in their future planning, what was suspicious was the amount of high priced real estate hitting the market at the same time. This wasn’t typical and selling off a needed wetland was well beyond a sensible fundraising mission.
If you’re interested in the fight we had to save The Bog, you can click onto our other blog site………. which documents the basics of our protest….which we won by the way…..the municipality acknowledging that sacrificing a wetland for the sake of a few more urban residential lots wasn’t particularly sensible. We had help from many organizations and hundreds of people across our community, who let the Town know what natural resource stewardship meant. I don’t believe the Town of Gravenhurst liked being told to back off or else. It was on the brink of being a huge national protest well beyond a blog and some conversational ill humour, when sensibility and clear thinking won out, and the matter was dropped for the time being. It is unlikely residents here will ever forget this foray…..and be so complacent as to believe there won’t be another battle another day….that would make five bids by the Town since the 1970’s to subdivide this important Muskoka wetland.
From late June until late August there wasn’t one clear day when something or other needed our attention, in order to keep our mission to Save The Bog on track. It swallowed up a lot of time, and took its toll emotionally on everyone involved. What it represented to us from the beginning, was a fight against poor urban planning…..and we knew that if the town could destroy this wetland….which was part of the parkland designation of our subdivision from the late 1970’s, and infill this filtering bed of run-off water to Lake Muskoka, then it would be the ultimate sign of inherent power that council could move on to even more contentious, more aggressive plans, to strip the landscape to suit expansionary interests. Urban sprawl. The developers were watching our little protest, without a doubt, and what they saw was a citizen population band together to remind local government that they aren’t immune from serious intervention when required. In this period of mounting and warranted environmental concern around the globe, it was clear the citizens in our community were paying attention…..and not about to let our elected officials do what ever they want…..without consequence.
We could look back at any time throughout the process, and see the troops mustering, and I have to tell you, that was what kept us to task. We weren’t doing this alone. And when we heard that council had changed its mind, and removed The Bog from the surplus property list, well, it was one of the most memorable days in our family history. Community history was made. Town hall listened to ratepayers. For all the critters, the deer, rabbits, fox, wolves, a bear or two, birds of every feather, a trillion insects and water creatures,…..suffice to say, they came awfully close to being homeless. The Bog now is a lasting, slightly more secure safe haven. It could have been that this beautiful 20 plus acre greenbelt was sacrificed for another condo project, yet another residential street at a time when there are loads of family homes for sale. I can’t tell you how heart breaking it would have been to sit here, attempting to write for a living, and hearing the chainsaw massacre just beyond my office window. Well, as I noted in the local press here, I would have been in front of the chainsaw blade in protest that’s for sure…..and that would have been the only way I could justify having a broken heart. There was no other option.
It hasn’t been a normal fall season at Birch Hollow due to the delays in just about everything we had during the summer. Our old book business had been on hiatus for most of the summer, and we cut down our public sales events to two, which is a quarter of what we normally do in any given tourist season here in Muskoka. So it has taken a bit longer this autumn to get everything back on track, including our boys’ music and collectable business, on the main street here in Gravenhurst, which is having a tremendous year. While we’re happy about the successes of the year so far, we’re still a little “wobbly legged” about the dark side outcome that might have prevailed, had we not found that first newspaper article, back in June, telling us our neighborhood was on the cusp of profound change. When we get up in the morning we look out on the woodlands to make sure everything is well…..and that the town hasn’t re-visited the project, and when we close up the homestead at night, we always take one final glance over to The Bog, to make sure we’ve passed safely toward yet another day here in the Ontario hinterland.
There’s a contentment that I almost feel guilty possessing since our victory…..but I’m going to enjoy it for awhile longer but never again will I be so complacent as to believe the progressives have given up the fight for more urban land……but rather are re-forming to fight yet another day.
I hope now to update this blog-site more regularly thanks to a generally peaceful autumn season unfolding.
Thanks for visiting this Gravenhurst site.
Please visit my other blog at thenatureofmuskoka.blogspot.com
