WE ALL NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE LIMITS TO GROWTH

I heard a neighbor of ours tell one of his guests about the “ecologist” living next door, and I suppose the disadvantages of dwelling so close to a family that monitors local disposal practices. The bog, across the street, has been a dump-site for a lot of residents in our neighborhood. I’ve caught more than a few in the act, and suggested I would help them load up their wheelbarrows, at no cost (and no municipal intervention). I do take the opportunity to ask whether they own the property they are abusing and if they have any idea how long it takes to break-down a plastic oil bottle, cans, small appliances, glass and ceramics. They give me the look, then admit it probably would take decades, maybe a century to erode to dust into the earth.

Every spring and every fall, these same folks will dump their lawn and garden refuse in the woodlands because they simply won’t pay to have it hauled away.....even in their own vehicles, and more than a few of these residents have appropriate vehicles to do so. One bloke who was casting off rather large chunks of a felled tree, felt no compunction at all, dumping it all into the lowland, along with sundry other plastic cast-offs he didn’t want to pay to dispose. While it’s not my job to police this environmental offence (and it is an offence indeed), it is my responsibility to educate those who need it most.

I am a frequent visitor at the regional landfill site and for the small price of disposal, and the re-cycling options, I just can’t understand how anyone can justify saving a few bucks, to pollute an important wetland instead. There are many dumping zones along our corridor, and throughout the municipality, where folks delight in dumping even major appliances. When the District of Muskoka gets the grand idea to charge for bags during regular curbside pick-up, it means a lot more work for citizens like myself, who make regular forays into the woodlands to pick up the refuse deposited by others. It may be a future plan with some merit but not before it is thoroughly examined, and a weighty fund and personnel arranged, to collect the items folks didn’t want to pay to dispose. In Toronto especially, illegal dumping costs millions to clean up, if and when they decide the pile has reached “eye-sore” level.....or there’s a G-20 coming-up.

When I was a kid, growing up in Bracebridge (1960's), the town dump was just outside the downtown business area, on the side of old Highway 11, where all visitors could come and see a hillside and creek below, covered in a colorful array of what society then had finished with. If you had some debris from the city, well, there were no checkpoints. Everything was accepted. And on Friday nights, if nothing else was going on, you could take a gun and shoot the rats. I’m not exactly sure the date when this dump-site was officially closed, but it had operated for many years, and I still ponder what drains into that abutting watershed, eventually flowing into the Muskoka River. It can’t be healthy knowing the items that are still contaminating that zone.

When I rear up about the local environment and the conduct of those who wish to foul it, I do have many, many critics, who wish I’d keep my opinions to myself. And I think back to how many folks, during the time the old Bracebridge dump-site on Highway II, operated, despite dissent by those who knew we would pay for our neglect sooner or later.

When I hear of someone else being diagnosed with cancer, and then another, and even more as the year progresses, I can’t help but wonder when it will dawn on this population generally, that we must change our ways entirely if we wish to survive. Treating cancer is one thing but dealing with its causes, well, its still hale and hardy out there, because we continue to contaminate the environment with full vigor......as was noted recently in a news account of the worsening conditions of our provinces waterways.

I don’t give a rat’s arse whether my neighbors think of me as an ecological nuisance. I have to do my part, and even though it’s not a big one, surely by now some of my adversaries are figuring out that I will continue to remind them about the law, which by now they should be well familiar.

I remember, as a reporter, a diver telling me during an interview, that the bottom of Muskoka’s Three Mile Lake looked like a used appliance warehouse. Since the first settlers arrived in Muskoka, so did the penchant for using the lake to dump their refuse. The inlanders did set up their own dumpsites, which are still polluting the landscape, but the lakeshore community, permanent and seasonal combined, rowed their junk away from their properties, and sunk it all, contamination oozing from car batteries to old fridges. It was a practice that continued until only a few decades ago. You can find many submerged appliances in the Algonquin lakes as well, much to my chagrin. While working on Tom Thomson research recently, my son and I paddled over a number of large appliances, near the old village of Mowat, on Canoe Lake. And yes, it makes your heart drop, that amidst this rugged, wonderful landscape, that inspired the likes of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, and so many artists since, it is as much an appliance graveyard reminding us all of the deep footprints of yore.

I’m pretty sure my neighbor looks down upon me as the rat fink of the neighborhood, watching for any indiscretions with can, glass or plastic refuse. While I really don’t study all that intently, I won’t cease being a watchdog. When an election candidate shares some of my values, well, I suggest we meet up some time, at roadside, and gather some refuse that didn’t quite make it to the landfill site. I’d really like them, when elected, to represent common sense with the rest of District Councillors, before they impose a plan, that will keep folks like me, travelling further to pick up more....because so many other folks don’t like paying to discard anything.