STRICTLY PERSONAL

ALGONQUIN PARK is
Ontario’s oldest park, hay-
ing turned:100 this summer.
‘It’s the place where Tom
“Thomson used to go to’
paint his famous Jack pines
and spring breakups — the |
: place whiere he mysteriously
died. .
The question now is s whether
Algonquin Park itself is dying.
-The area has been logged for .
130 years. It was initially estab-
lished to keep land-hungry settlers
out of this vast 7 ,000-square- ;
: Kilometre forest..":
<The official reason for creation
“of the park was to save the
: beaver which had practically been
ped out by then.
Behind the scenes, there was
political hanky-panky, as usual.
‘The robber barons of the forest
idustry didn’t want little people
clearing land because it might af-
fect water levels, which would af- °
fect the ease with which logs can |
be floated downstream through
he five major rivers of the area to

Behind the scenes, the real s scam .
was to keep people mainly out of

the Algonquin area — except for ~

relative handfuls of campers —
while holding : on toa logging,
reserve in perpetuity. !
Logging never stopped i in
Algonquin. ‘It merely went behind

: _ the low, geritly rounded hills. ~.,
“As in B.C., the loggers got into

“the habit of leaving a beauty line '-

of trees along the roads and the
‘shores’ of fakes and streams. .

There are so many roads"
‘through Algonquin now they —
would stretch, laid end to end, -

rom the foot of the park to:
Florida, something like 2,000
: kilometres. che
The trouble with roads through
‘what is supposed to be a ‘‘natural
environment”. is that everything,
from zebra mussels to purple

'- loosestrife sooner or. later gets to

“migrate along with the incoming
_ .people and their equipment.

-».” “AS the roads are being built,
gravelbeds are pushed up to the’
edges of creeks. The gravel gets

~~, washed away as sand.

os Sedimentation sets in, and this

. can change water levels, which
-changes the temperature of the
- water; which dramatically affects
’ the cold-water trout which have
‘so far.survived in nearly all of the
- parks ate lakes. ;

46 Already a ‘sea’ of old-growth white
pine has vanished from Algonquin. 99

The main reason the fish have
done as well as they have is
because the vast majority of those
lakes are hard to reach. No roads
means people having to come in
by boat, mainly canoe.

That limited the impact of
humans tremendously. The laby-
rinth of roads now running like
veins through the Algonquin
ecosystem opens all this terrain
and these pristine little bodies of
water to outside infestations, and
not just plagues of spruce bud-
worm or Dutch elm disease.
Above all, they introduce a new
predator with no natural enemy
except himself.”

Until two years ago, hunting in
the park by natives was illegal.
They protested the ban on the
grounds that it violated treaties,
and, besides, they had a land
claim before the courts that in-
cludes practically a fifth of On-

. tario —- Algonquin Park being
just part of it.

A couple of years ago, the On-
tario NDP decided to grant the
Algonquin Indians of Golden
Lake the right to hunt and fish —
or, rather, to recognize that they
had never technically lost this
right.

There are only a couple of hun-
dred people involved, and strict
bag limits are set on deer and
moose, but there is already an
enormous poaching problem in the
park.’

The Indian liunters are suddenly
there, on top of the poachers.

This stil! might not be too much
of a problem except that wildlife
is under such pressure nearly ev-
’‘erywhere else in the province that

. areserve becomes valuable almost

beyond measure.

It serves as a sanctuary where
animal populations in trouble have
a chance io regroup genetically,
where a degree of biodiversity —

-which shaped these creatures and
which, alone, holds them intact —

can actually be salvaged. «
Only 14% of the park is for-

. mally protected: The rest lies open

to dogging.
- It is, to be fair, selective log-.
ging, not quite the abominable

_clearcuts which are normal every-

where else. Still, the forest is being

altered constantly.

The removal of any species
from an area due to logging prac-
tices decreases diversity, that’s all
there is to it.

Already a “‘sea,’’ as it was
called, of old-growth white pine
has vanished from Algonquin.

The last big river drive of white
pine was boomed southward in
1955. There are no giant pines
sticking up above the hardwoods
on the hills any longer.

The place has already been
transformed into something far
less majestic than it was.

This is, of course, exactly what
is happening in B.C.

it is very sad to look at the
pigmy forests of Algonquin, pretty
as they are, and realize that a
legacy has been irretrievably lost.

As far back as the turn of the
century, loggers were saying::
“Don’t worry, the pine’ll come
back.””

But it hasn’t. And it won’t. The
maple have moved it. The white
pine’s ecological niche is gone.

Bears are now hunted and
baited along almost all of the. .
park’s borders. Wolves that cross
the line are trapped for a bounty.

Deer are fed during the winter
outside the park, which increases
their population, which in turn
puts more pressure on the moose,
which dies from a parasite called
brainworm that they pick up from
the deer.

CORRECTION
NOTICE
Sept. 22 Flyer

Page 1-E Motion Sensor
should have read: “Reg.
12.97, Sale 11.77 (save
$1.20)"

We apologize for any
inconvenience this may
have caused our Woolco
customers.

Support
Joan E. Gadsby
for —

North Vancouver District

Council
To Contribute Funds to the

' Election Campaign or Volunteer

AUTHORIZED SERVICE FOR:
aoitTsusice

Call 985-7001

The biggest fear, with regard to
wildlife, is that as the animals are
wiped out, or nearly wiped out, all
around the park, those who do
manage to survive will be forced
to interbreed, making subsequent
generations more susceptible to
disease.

On top of all this, the park has
become more and more popular
over the years. A million people
went camping in Algonquin this .
summer.

Like the beaver, they chew and
nibble away. Designated campsites
expand one tree at a time.
Thick-treaded boots stir the grav-
el. Canoes slice at the beach.

There is the distant sound of
gunfire. Outboard engines mutter
along the streams, and the animals
try to draw further and further
back. ;

Not a happy time for Ontario’s
oldest and biggest park. Maybe
a kind of lesson there for us
al ?

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