Ghosts from the Day - Part 2

In 1876, the Muskoka Milling and Lumber CO. built a village, with housing and a school for the millhand's children. There was a church, and the Rossin House Hotel for visitors (Brown, p. 91). All would have been well, except that while lumber barons were floating their logs down river, or across the bay, sawdust poisoned fish spawning grounds. They were taken to court, the case dismissed, and eventually, despite this early warning, portent of things to come, the mill shut down in 1895 due to over-cutting.

Environmental Issues

Land rights

Settlements, created by early settlers, who travelled from Paris and London, to the deep wilderness, learned to farm. Read Lost in the Backwoods  or  Book Review: Raisin Wine for more information. This is a common story for South, Central and Northern Ontario.  However, imagine the impact on the tribes who had hunted and gathered for many years in this area. (Photo from Pancake Bay Trading post!)

Overfishing

A royal commission in 1898 found that Georgian Bay fishermen were using undersized nets, and exceeding the number of permitted nets. They estimated that more than 2,000 nest were strung in the Bay. This combined with effluent pollution, created these ghost towns.





Excess hunting and fishing contributed to the ravaging of the land. Native Peoples knew not to take more than their share, but greedy companies (HBC & NWC) sent in map makers, and created outposts which exploited the land. Settlers, fishermen and lumber companies cleared the land, decimating the ecosystem.


Logging Operations
Communally owned land was being begged, bartered, treatied and stolen away. In the meantime, the logging business in this part of the Great Lakes ramped up big time. Unfortunately, it was the mills that did damage to precious fish stock. Fishing harbours were profoundly affected by the mills.This photo is from 2009, of Mamainse Harbour in the fog. A former busy fishing port.

There was much action from Tobermory, the Bruce Peninsula, across Georgian Bay and the North Channel. Our visit to Lake Superior Park showed us some of these quiet, empty ports. Saw mills cut logs for schooners to haul out to settlers in ports. In the winter, as with Muskoka, many worked cutting and hauling logs. This was the time when the bogs were frozen and logs were piled on riverbanks awaiting spring thaw. Log jams, and accidents took their toll on families.

These massive logging operations in Canadian territory did a booming business, if you'll excuse the pun, with the USA. There were issues with this sort of cross border shipping, and one lumberman moved his operation (in the dead of night) from the US to Canada since even in the 1800s big business was seeking to protect its own. Many began to take advantage of the great pines. Eventually, Canadians built mills.


At the peak of the White Pine harvest they were taking 400,000 trees a year. Trees that were 20' around the base. See History of Nepean for more information. Sir John A. McDonald wrote to the Premier of Ontario:

“The sight of the immense masses of timber passing my window every morning constantly suggests to my mind the absolute necessity there is for looking into the future of this great trade. We are recklessly destroying the timber of Canada and there is scarcely
a possibility of replacing it.”



But the mills...and a spot called Muskoka Mills, takes its place in history and is an example of how lives were changed by development and settlement.

Milling in Georgian Bay peaked by the decade of 1910, rivalling that of Ottawa, but limited by the government dictate of 1898 legislation requiring that all timber cut on Crown Land by milled in Canada. Shaped by the West Wind quotes James Angus,  writing about A.G.P. Dodge, the owner of the Georgian Bay Lumber Company:

By then, once the mills were no longer viable, lands were sold to cottagers, who longed for the wildness and wilderness of Northern Ontario. Some mills have become heritage buildings, but many, according to *Vanished Villages, have simply gone to decay.

This is the harbour in Blind River, formerly a busy port, with fishing and logging, but now for seasonal visitors and leisure boat activities.


Resources

Ghosts from the Day -Part 1

Ontario Visual Heritage Project

*The book is called, Vanished Villages: Discover whistlestops, old mills, lost hamlets, relics and ruins of Ontario, by Ron Brown (1996)
~Some photos from Canada.ca archives, see History of Nepean.
~See also: Lament for a First Nation: the Williams treaties of Southern Ontario

 By Peggy J. Blair (Amazon.ca, $80)

~Artist Gallery: A.Y. Jackson Autumn, Muskosh River

~Shaped by the West Wind: Nature And History in Georgian Bay, by Claire Elizabeth Campbell - 2005 - History - 294 pages
The ghost of log-driver Sandy Gray haunts the falls on the Muskosh River, ...

Tugs towed log booms from rivers mouths on the Bay to American mills 

Chop, chop, chop.... timber!

Beach fun

Something about kids and water!

This is the game taught to our granddaughter at her swim lessons. The parent says... "chop - chop - chop: timber" and upon: TIMBER! falls into the lake. We had a grand time frolicking this summer. But many were busy at work this past week.

Can you see him?
Trimming trees

Our neighbour had some trees taken down. I was doubtful that my videocam was working and did not prevail to capture the events. (Boot to the head, methinks!) If a tree falls in the forest...

This is hard work.

 The sound of the chain saw covered up the sound of gunfire across the lake.  There is that. Hunting season... although, I'm not sure it IS hunting season - I heard one series of 8 shots. (I think s/he should turn in his gun! Something about broad side of a barn door?)

The young men doing their tree work were fascinating. I asked if his mother knew what he did and printed him off a few photos for him!

I know my brother never told me, or my mom, what he actually did for a living. He is a gold miner at Musselwhite mine*, with EMS qualifications and rescue experience, but he is also a dynamite specialist. (Who knew?!) Blowing things up underground.

Our forest is reaching maturity, and the tamarack and pines, with shallow roots, fall over easily in the tornado-like winds. Last year was a perfect example. The Precambrian Shield rock was scoured by ancient glaciers, and soil is shallow.

The conifers stop producing needles once the tree leaves do not get any sun. They grow closely together, and one a tree is down, the integrity of the forest is compromised. I hope the tree trunks will be homes for somebody.

You can drive by places, now that the leaves have fallen, where hurricane-force winds have exposed giant roots, and trees have been tilted to provide shelter for wild animals.

The ancient forests in Ontario's past are now gone in all but a few places. This Ancient Forest Exploration Guide contains much information:

"Old-growth white and red pine forests are endangered less than one percent of the province's original old-growth forest remains. Ontario's old-growth white pine forest, in turn, represents more than 95 percent of what remains of this ancient forest type in Canada and 60 percent of what remains in the world. In fact, Temagami's old-growth pine stands alone represent approximately 10 percent of what remains in the world. This makes Ontario the last hope for saving this once common ecosystem, yet less than once third of Ontario's precious few remaining old growth white and red pine stands are legally protected."

Our  tree, with delightful markings of the pileated woodpecker, or the flicker, had a falling out last December in high winds. (Photo left) The holes were too deep and the tree trunk weakened by the drilling of red-capped birds. We found termites and ants within the top of it, once the tree was cut up. It is a natural cycle of life.

I was listening to our gardening guru on CBC Ontario Today, Ed Lawrence (a horticultural specialist), who told us that such trees are healthier than we think. In fact, the pileated woodpeckers open the tree up and the bugs are more available to trolling birds and 'coons.

Muskoka Lakes has been in a big battle with large property owners over, at least, the past year, if not longer. I have heard, via blog comments, that many neighbours of large tracts of land fear land development unchecked. Muskoka means trees and distance from neighbours!

There is a tree cutting policy that has failed to be passed, designed to protect the integrity of the forest, as well as ensuring that our forest will last beyond our lifetimes. Jake Good wrote a fine article on this topic:

"Aggressive logging companies and absentee landowners may be one of the main reasons the District of Muskoka is adopting a new tree-cutting bylaw."

Last year, in a landowners protest (the right to bear arms, transferred to the right to wield an axe?), landowners shut down the snowmobile trails. This slowed the traffic on trails, and thereby limiting tourist dollars on which business owners depend.

In the past, Muskoka was founded on the massive pines that were ripped from the land in order to build and furnish homes, and fine ships. In research I did on The History of Nepean (see Side 41; now part of Ottawa), authors spoke of 400-year-old pines sacrificed to development and dollars in the late 1870s. Logs were sent down river, and many a Muskokan family depended upon this trade. At the peak of the White Pine harvest they were taking 400,000 trees per year.

Trees take 60 - 100 years to become harvestable. Research and Development (R & ), continues to be of concern. In 1978 in Canada only 0.6% of forestry sales were spent on research and development, compared to 1.5% of sales in the United States.

Further, Douglas Martin (found at: cael.ca) in Canada's Wasted Woodlands wrote:

"The federal government has not provided much leadership, and even cut the Canadian Forestry

Service staff and research funds in half during the 1970s. The provincial governments, which control 90% of Canada's forests, have either ignored the issue of reforestation, or failed to come up with sensible plans for the forest industry.

...our country is the largest exporter of manufactured forest products; 90% of our newsprint, 70% of our lumber, and 60% of our chemical pulp are exported; in all, nearly 30% of the manufactured forest products that enter the world market come from Canada. This export of wood products contributes a net gain of $12 billion to the Canadian economy, more than the combined exports of farm products, fish, metal and coal."


Canada's forest companies cut about 8,000 km² a year, and plant or reseed about a quarter of that area. About 2,000 to 3,000 km² of the rest will restock reasonably well on its own. 


Sir John A. Macdonald (1815 - 1891) in 1871, in amazing foresight, wrote to the premier of Ontario:

Hubby's tree hugger cat!

"The sight of the immense masses of timber passing my window every morning constantly suggests to my mind the absolute necessity there is for looking into the future of this great trade. We are recklessly destroying the timber of Canada and there is scarcely a possibility of replacing it." (the SierraClub.ca; PDF)

Fire, insects, and disease: natural causes, claim fair share of the forest. But humankind needs to get it together. Tree hugger (claims Sady) is an honourable term!
~~~~~~~~

*Musselwhite Mine is a fly-in fly-out, 4,000 tonne per day underground gold producer.

Musselwhite Mine is a leader in First Nations relationships through an innovative agreement with the local communities.

Landowners to keep trails open for now October 7, 2009 - by Karen Longwell District councillors voted to move ahead with the forest health program Monday night but it appears, for now, landowners won’t close area snowmobile More snow trail closures contemplated September 30, 2009 - by Karen Longwell Muskoka snowmobilers could face trail closures again this winter if the Muskoka Landowners Association and the District Municipality of Muskoka fail. NOTES FROM THE MUSKOKA WATERSHED COUNCIL — Trees are an integral part of Muskoka March 19, 2009 - by Rebecca Willison Trees have been at the forefront of many people’s minds the past several months, and for good reason. Trees are the oldest

Muskoka Landowners Association demands new Tree Cutting By-Law ...

26 Jan 2009 ... The Muskoka Landowners Association, who represent a large group of landowners, is asking the District of Muskoka for their cooperation

Muskokan.com - Tree-cutting bylaw is bigger than Muskoka

28 Jan 2009 ...Good, Jake,  As one county adopts a tree-cutting bylaw, the logging company's ... of the Great Lakes forest area, which Muskoka is a part of, home

Tree-cutting controversy grabs Muskoka - Parry Sound

18 Feb 2009 ... Muskoka Lakes mayor Susan Pryke said the persuasive strategies of landowners have ... The most recent version of the tree-cutting bylaw