plans for new non-motorized park

ontario parks has quietly moved ahead with development plans for one of temagami's provincial parks. the plans involve new campsites accessible only by trail or boat, for a park that caters to hikers and not to atv'ers. but (unfortunately) this isn't the park you're thinking of.

wjb greenwood park is a 265 ha recreation class park just south of latchford. it occupies the southern shoreline of bay lake, and currently consists of a few hiking trails winding through second growth birch and spruce forest. prodded by the town of latchford, who developed a business case for the park, ontario parks has begun developing a management plan for a, "unique park... [as] a hub for hikers. all campsites will be accessible only by foot or by boat." sod turning will be in july 2007. work will be done primarily by volunteers with the friends of greenwood park.

why is latchford bucking the trend of regional municipalities, led by elk lake, of opposing ecotourism and advocating for motorized access in parks? without making a big fuss, latchford (pop. 300) council has aimed its economic and tourism development sights squarely on hikers and other light travellers. i think latchford realizes, to their great benefit, that the hunting and fishing model of tourism is mature. every town in northern ontario has a gaggle of hook 'n bullet lodges nearby. latchford has very little of this, and has chosen not to compete but instead to carve out their own niche. they look at what they have that is special, and emphasize that, rather than emphasizing what they have that everyone else has too.

town of latchford - greenwood park
ontario parks - greenwood park
latchford area trails

on another note, please accept my apologies for yesterday's technical difficulties. i accidentally deleted wild temagami, but was able to rebuild most of it using saved files, memory and time. the only posts i've been unable to reconstuct are 'a road in a roadless wilderness' on atv use in the lady evelyn-smoothwater park, and 'who painted temagami's pictographs?' i'll do my best to reconstruct them soon.

help your neighbours

one of the most spectacular places in temagami isn't even in temagami. the kipawa river empties into lake temiskaming on the quebec shore, not too far south of the matabitchuan river. for those of you who haven't seen it, you really should, it's only a 45 minute drive from new liskeard or an hour's paddle from the matabitchuan.

the kipawa runs 16 km from lake kipawa to lake temiskaming. over that short length, it drops an astonishing 90 m. that makes for near continuous class 3 to class 5 whitewater, as well as the 30 m grand chutes, probably the tallest and highest volume waterfall in the area (at least since they dammed the notch on the montreal). the river is nearly pristine, with very little development and huge pines. kipawa is known in the whitewater playboating community as the best run in eastern north america, with a river rally hosted at the outlet every spring (june 23-24 this year). but its really a shame that the kipawa isn't known or celebrated in the wider temagami environmentalist community.

les amis de la riviere kipawa was formed in 1998 to counter threats from hydro development. they have become one of the most successful environmental groups in the area, partnering with outfitters, industry, paddlers and the municipality of laniel on a wide variety of projects, from the river rally to hiking trails. they've also become quite adept at using the courts to oppose hydro quebec's tabaret project, which would divert the river for electricity generation.

until very recently the only way to see the kipawa was the hard way (by boat), and to do that you needed some pretty solid whitewater skills. however, in 2001 les amis completed the 7 km kipawa river trail. from a trailhead on the access road, its an easy 10 minute walk to the grand chutes.

you can support les amis by attending a benefit concert in toronto, sat. march 31, or by becoming a member.

with friends like these

the temagami stewardship council works in partnership with the mnr to preserve, restore and improve the fishery and water quality of lake temagami and cross lake. the key word here is partnership. the tsc and the mnr are legal partners in resource management on temagami and cross. it appears that partnership has soured of late. this culminated yesterday in a letter to the editor of the north bay nugget by tsc chair gaye smith. mr. smith accused the mnr of using a staff position and funding to, "exert control and force the council to adopt its perceived model of 'stewardship.' when the tsc did not fall in line, [mnr] withdrew the support of the program.... this mnr tactic had worked previously with the lake nipissing and the wendaban stewardships."

tsc members are volunteers, who help mnr biologists with research projects on the health of the lake temagami fishery. upset at this bullying from the mnr, mr. smith asked, "who in their right mind would volunteer to do the work the mnr should be doing and not expect to be involved as a partner in the management of the local natural resources and the environment?" he finishes by saying that the tsc is only trying to do its best for the environment and, "we could use some help, not sabotage."

the nugget edited out the sabotage part. you can read the whole letter on the tsc's webpage under tsc news.

now, the mnr is proposing a partnership to manage backcountry portage and campsite maintenance and user information in temagami. nothing is carved in stone, but potential partners were listed in the preliminary plans. they included the municipality, temagami first nation, association of youth camps, tourism operators, friends of temagami, temagami lakes association, and surprise, surprise, their jilted partner, the tsc.

it appears as though the mnr brass really doesn't appreciate dedicated members of the public involving themselves in resource management. they only do it because they're forced to. if this is how the mnr treats its partners, these organizations should have a good tete-a-tete with gaye smith before signing on the dotted line.

where i want to be

limited edition 16"x21" pen and ink drawing by hap wilson, prints available for purchase from the artist at sunrise adventures. 50% of proceeds go to earthroots.

protect all of the wolf lake red pines

area of red pine old growth forest at wolf lake: 1600 ha
next largest contiguous stand of old growth red pine in the world: 473 ha (rabbit lake conservation reserve)
total area of old growth red pine in the world: 10 417 ha

15% of the world's old growth red pine surrounds wolf lake
and is unprotected

minister ramsay, protect this.

save temagami

our land is more valuable than your money. as long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will give life to men and animals. we cannot sell the lives of men and animals. we cannot sell this land.

- adapted from crowfoot, a sign bearing this quote marked the portage from lain to diamond in the 1990's

why temagami should be a national park: reason #1

there are no national parks in northeastern ontario.

national parks in ontario include bruce peninsula, georgian bay islands, point pelee, pukaskwa and st. lawrence islands.

kaw'wawm'inash'ing

bare feet on the ground
through the forest to be with
all my relations

a timeline for industrial firsts

time immemorial - teme-augama anishnabeg
1620-1640 european religion (jesuit missionaries visit the fringes of n'daki menan)
1679 fur trading (french post established at the mouth of the montreal and matabitchuan rivers)
1877 native land claims (chief tonene asks the federal government for a treaty)
1879 agriculture (chief tonene encourages his people to take up farming, fearing the white men would kill all the animals)
1880s prospecting (gold found on shore of lake temagami in 1887)
1890s recreational canoeing (particularly temagami, nonwakaming, and lady evelyn lakes)
1901 protected areas (temagami forest reserve established to protect the forest from settlers)
1901 forest fire fighting (rangers patrol the tfr)
1903 youth camping (camp keewaydin established on devil's island)
1904 rail transportation (temiskaming and northern ontario railway reaches temagami)
1904 steamboating (s.s. marie sails from the town of temagami)
1904 lodge-based tourism and cottaging
1906 mining (silver mine on the eastern flank of maple mountain)
1900s logging (started with the clearing of the railway, continued on an ad hoc basis along the rail corridor)
1914 park advocacy (provincial park proposal from associated boards of trade of ontario)
1973 environmental activism (save maple mountain committee formed to oppose ski resort)

what do you take from this?

sources vintage postcards.com
ottertooth
bruce hodgins and jamie benidickson's book, the temagami experience, university of toronto press, 1989

lake timagami bark canoe sketch

edwin tappan adney (1868-1950) and howard chapelle wrote the bark canoes and skin boats of north america (museums of history and technology, bulletin 230, washington, d.c., smithsonian institution, 1964).

adney and chapelle's book contains a sketch of a "fathom freight canoe from lake timagami, apparently a hybrid based on canvas canoes . . . . overall length 18'6." also shown is an ojibway paddle made of maple, without a ridge.

thanks to jim wheaton for this photograph of an ojibway rice harvest canoe, carved by adney. wheaton is writing a bibliography of adney. i'd love to know if adney carved a similar model of the temagami canoe. apparently he carved over 100 1/5 scale model canoes, which are housed at the mariners' museum, newport news, virginia. maybe i should have a wild temagami correspondent go to check.

technical difficulties

please accept my humblest apologies. my technological innocence has me in hot water, and i've deleted the old wild temagami. pray for me, i'm working with blogger tech support to rectify this problem. in the meantime, please enjoy some familiar photos.