Apathy costs us all – watching from the sidelines as our Muskoka hinterland destroyed
It’s groundhog day and in reaction to a large meeting of the world’s leading scientists (today) to discuss global warming, it seemed the perfect time to chastise local government, AGAIN, for short sightedness in the home district. How can we fix a global disaster before making things right in our respective neighborhoods? Just some thoughts on how we can defend Muskoka….our own environs in certain peril!
With all this enlightened thinking about global warming and ecological well being, can we expect that a few local politicians will rise from their seats at council tables, to demand an end to urban sprawl across the Muskoka landscape?
Will just one politician rise and ask, “Why do we need this condo project in Muskoka?” “Why do we need this box store?” “What are the benefits to the environment of a strip mall?” “Don’t we have enough shopping opportunities already?” “Over-retailed,” is it possible?
I would cherish the day when a local council decided that there is more to Muskoka’s future than purely economic development.
Muskoka is a district ripe for exploitation. There is NO ceiling to development; new initiatives by government to appease development interests can change plans with surprising ease. To think we’ve got limits to growth in this region is nonsense. There are few iron-clad plans without built-in wiggle room.
When I think about local government today, and what they represent in our respective communities, I can’t see beyond their far too flexible economic development interests. It seems everything is to build-out, expand, and make bigger as an illustration of community dynamic and progressive enterprise. I don’t get the impression they spend much time examining social issues, such as needs of the local food bank, homelessness, social well being of the citizenry generally, and I can’t remember the last time I read a story about councilors cracking down on local crime and the sale of drugs in public places. I do hear about their dealings with developers and planners and other related empire building strategies but I wonder if they occasionally read about local occurrences of crime, and truly appreciate that city building causes city problems. Some urban experts might wish to suggest that local politicians start upgrading their education, to know the increasing social requirements of a large population and crime problems experienced by all expanding centers in North America.
I get the opinion that local elected representatives don’t get the full picture because they’re not tuned in to the right channels. When they re-locate an urban park, such as in the case of the recently sacrificed Jubilee Park, in Bracebidge, (now to be used as a university campus) they don’t talk about the negatives of robbing one part of town to pay off another neighborhood….as if in their wonderland they can do whatever they want “consequence free”! And when consequence does rear its head, well, the folks who got us in the mess have retired from politics or departed this mortal coil.
When a golf course was being constructed near us a while back, residents in our neighborhood would comment to us about the wolves, foxes, deer, bear and owls that had been coming into or around their yards. Gads, isn’t this great. Just like going to a zoo except it’s in our yard! Do you think one, just one elected official, would ponder before glad-handing such a mega project, what “habitat” means. What “declining habitat” means to all life on this planet. So while many in our town were tickled silly watching increased animal traffic particularly in the immediate area of construction, our family felt sick seeing the creatures displaced from their habitat, and found no joy seeing homeless wildlife looking for lodging like intruders in their own region.
I have stated quite publicly that I am not anti-development but I most certainly do not approve of developmental speculation that is running rampant in our region at present, affecting far more habitat than ever in Muskoka’s history. Our permanent population does not justify the urban and residential expansion, unless there has been a huge undetected migration to our region…..that hasn’t yet showed up in the grocery store cue which is pretty thin in the midst of a Muskoka winter. Maybe all the new property owners are in the tropics for the winter. Investment properties you say? If the new development in Muskoka was representative of a population shift, that would be something significant; more accurately is the statement, “if they build it, they will come!” So screw habitat in the name of “let’s build something else we truly don’t need!”
If I was to ask a local politician why we require this present orgy of development, they would more than likely quote some developer….. who may have uttered a profound comment like, “you want to prosper don’t you….you surely don’t want your town to roll over and die because you won’t except any new development?” As a long time reporter I’ve heard it all. Just not statements like, “Well, where will these foxes and wolves find habitat if we destroy this forest?” “Where will all the frogs and snakes and little critters slither to, when we tarmac over this lowland.”
I find it offensive that we are welcoming economic development to our region because it’s offered….not because it’s exactly what we need but because it just happened by when “we needed something, anything that looked progressive.” If our elected officials in Muskoka, don’t make environmental, ecological stands soon, and give the heave-ho to plans that don’t suit the wellness and recovery of our hinterland, we will be forced to deal with the same-old-same-old of every expansive urban area in the world. It will be at the expense of our tourism industry which, if this historian’s memory serves correct, is still after all these years, the number one industry in our entire region. Many of our visitors and cottagers contend with urban dilemmas at home, and don’t require an added measure of the same on their retreat into the hinterland.
I would like someone, a politician even, to tell me how in God’s name, a new shopping mall will help maintain the quality of life for my children? How it will companion with the environment to make the world a better place? The forest? If it had been conserved for its environmental contribution instead, would have assisted our capability to survive another generation. Maybe the biggest problem our elected officials have these days, is thinking beyond tomorrow and the next day. What they are facilitating today is a much quicker demise of the natural world whether they are enlightened enough to believe it or not.
I would like in the future to be able to take my grandchildren on a stroll through a Muskoka woodland and not hear a jackhammer, an earth mover, a nail gun, or smell freshly rolled tarmac; or see the ugly backside of a shopping mall rise through the woodland mist. I would like to think environmental conscience will one day share equal attention in the proceedings of local council. Being a progressive community might one day be synonymous with “ecological protection,” “conservation,” and “healthy environs.” I dream of the day of sensible proportion, when development isn’t just the lark of land sharks and speculators.
Thanks for reading this blog installment, and if you experienced some flames coming out of your monitor, it’s reflective of the chagrin of this writer-historian….watching helplessly as another acre of Muskoka is sacrificed out of greed not necessity.
Please check out my other blog at http://gravenhurstmuskoka.blogspot.com/
It’s groundhog day and in reaction to a large meeting of the world’s leading scientists (today) to discuss global warming, it seemed the perfect time to chastise local government, AGAIN, for short sightedness in the home district. How can we fix a global disaster before making things right in our respective neighborhoods? Just some thoughts on how we can defend Muskoka….our own environs in certain peril!
With all this enlightened thinking about global warming and ecological well being, can we expect that a few local politicians will rise from their seats at council tables, to demand an end to urban sprawl across the Muskoka landscape?
Will just one politician rise and ask, “Why do we need this condo project in Muskoka?” “Why do we need this box store?” “What are the benefits to the environment of a strip mall?” “Don’t we have enough shopping opportunities already?” “Over-retailed,” is it possible?
I would cherish the day when a local council decided that there is more to Muskoka’s future than purely economic development.
Muskoka is a district ripe for exploitation. There is NO ceiling to development; new initiatives by government to appease development interests can change plans with surprising ease. To think we’ve got limits to growth in this region is nonsense. There are few iron-clad plans without built-in wiggle room.
When I think about local government today, and what they represent in our respective communities, I can’t see beyond their far too flexible economic development interests. It seems everything is to build-out, expand, and make bigger as an illustration of community dynamic and progressive enterprise. I don’t get the impression they spend much time examining social issues, such as needs of the local food bank, homelessness, social well being of the citizenry generally, and I can’t remember the last time I read a story about councilors cracking down on local crime and the sale of drugs in public places. I do hear about their dealings with developers and planners and other related empire building strategies but I wonder if they occasionally read about local occurrences of crime, and truly appreciate that city building causes city problems. Some urban experts might wish to suggest that local politicians start upgrading their education, to know the increasing social requirements of a large population and crime problems experienced by all expanding centers in North America.
I get the opinion that local elected representatives don’t get the full picture because they’re not tuned in to the right channels. When they re-locate an urban park, such as in the case of the recently sacrificed Jubilee Park, in Bracebidge, (now to be used as a university campus) they don’t talk about the negatives of robbing one part of town to pay off another neighborhood….as if in their wonderland they can do whatever they want “consequence free”! And when consequence does rear its head, well, the folks who got us in the mess have retired from politics or departed this mortal coil.
When a golf course was being constructed near us a while back, residents in our neighborhood would comment to us about the wolves, foxes, deer, bear and owls that had been coming into or around their yards. Gads, isn’t this great. Just like going to a zoo except it’s in our yard! Do you think one, just one elected official, would ponder before glad-handing such a mega project, what “habitat” means. What “declining habitat” means to all life on this planet. So while many in our town were tickled silly watching increased animal traffic particularly in the immediate area of construction, our family felt sick seeing the creatures displaced from their habitat, and found no joy seeing homeless wildlife looking for lodging like intruders in their own region.
I have stated quite publicly that I am not anti-development but I most certainly do not approve of developmental speculation that is running rampant in our region at present, affecting far more habitat than ever in Muskoka’s history. Our permanent population does not justify the urban and residential expansion, unless there has been a huge undetected migration to our region…..that hasn’t yet showed up in the grocery store cue which is pretty thin in the midst of a Muskoka winter. Maybe all the new property owners are in the tropics for the winter. Investment properties you say? If the new development in Muskoka was representative of a population shift, that would be something significant; more accurately is the statement, “if they build it, they will come!” So screw habitat in the name of “let’s build something else we truly don’t need!”
If I was to ask a local politician why we require this present orgy of development, they would more than likely quote some developer….. who may have uttered a profound comment like, “you want to prosper don’t you….you surely don’t want your town to roll over and die because you won’t except any new development?” As a long time reporter I’ve heard it all. Just not statements like, “Well, where will these foxes and wolves find habitat if we destroy this forest?” “Where will all the frogs and snakes and little critters slither to, when we tarmac over this lowland.”
I find it offensive that we are welcoming economic development to our region because it’s offered….not because it’s exactly what we need but because it just happened by when “we needed something, anything that looked progressive.” If our elected officials in Muskoka, don’t make environmental, ecological stands soon, and give the heave-ho to plans that don’t suit the wellness and recovery of our hinterland, we will be forced to deal with the same-old-same-old of every expansive urban area in the world. It will be at the expense of our tourism industry which, if this historian’s memory serves correct, is still after all these years, the number one industry in our entire region. Many of our visitors and cottagers contend with urban dilemmas at home, and don’t require an added measure of the same on their retreat into the hinterland.
I would like someone, a politician even, to tell me how in God’s name, a new shopping mall will help maintain the quality of life for my children? How it will companion with the environment to make the world a better place? The forest? If it had been conserved for its environmental contribution instead, would have assisted our capability to survive another generation. Maybe the biggest problem our elected officials have these days, is thinking beyond tomorrow and the next day. What they are facilitating today is a much quicker demise of the natural world whether they are enlightened enough to believe it or not.
I would like in the future to be able to take my grandchildren on a stroll through a Muskoka woodland and not hear a jackhammer, an earth mover, a nail gun, or smell freshly rolled tarmac; or see the ugly backside of a shopping mall rise through the woodland mist. I would like to think environmental conscience will one day share equal attention in the proceedings of local council. Being a progressive community might one day be synonymous with “ecological protection,” “conservation,” and “healthy environs.” I dream of the day of sensible proportion, when development isn’t just the lark of land sharks and speculators.
Thanks for reading this blog installment, and if you experienced some flames coming out of your monitor, it’s reflective of the chagrin of this writer-historian….watching helplessly as another acre of Muskoka is sacrificed out of greed not necessity.
Please check out my other blog at http://gravenhurstmuskoka.blogspot.com/
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