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.