This week, Bill paddles to see new territory but learns a lot more about the value of the trees<\/p>\n
There\u2019s that expression “more than meets the eye,” and this story opened mine.<\/p>\n
I have been paddling for a long time.<\/p>\n
It is not only therapeutic, but there are always things to\u00a0learn when visiting somewhere new, and\u00a0lots of tree-lined rivers and lakes to be discovered. The skyline where the green meets the blue is one of those natural wonders.<\/p>\n
This time there was something new about the value of tree-skyline, and it made me start to look at trees differently.<\/p>\n
The intention was to be the first writer to paddle the new land acquisition by the Nature Conservancy of Canada\u00a0\u2013 Kabenung Lake-Star Island. And I am.<\/p>\n
It was announced early this summer that the Nature Conservancy of Canada\u00a0(established in 1962) had secured over 8,100 hectares of boreal forest, wetlands, and shoreline, between Wawa and White River, accessed by the Paint Lake Road, which leads to the Eagle River Gold Mine, which is operated by Wesdome Mines. This mine is located in the Mishibishu Greenstone Belt, which is known for its gold-bearing properties.<\/p>\n
So, I contacted\u00a0the Nature Conservancy of Canada.<\/p>\n
It was learned that the Kabenung Lakes and Forests project has long been identified as a priority for conservation by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. An opportunity presented itself to protect the entirety of the property for conservation.<\/p>\n
Katlin Richardson, a conservancy biologist, is familiar with the property.<\/p>\n
Star Island itself was slated for development of 75 cottage lots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so grateful to have gotten to preserve its natural heritage long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
She explained, \u201cAt 468 ha, Star Island itself is a large piece of land, larger than some of Nature Conservancy of Canada\u2019s other nature reserves. Within the context of an 8,142 ha (81 sq. km) property like Kabenung Lakes and Forests, though, the significance of that can get lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cStar Island has minimal signs of disturbance, with an elevated lake at the top in the center of the island.\u201d<\/p>\n
That intrigued me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the pleasure of exploring Star Island\u2019s natural beauty this summer,\u201d Katline said, \u201cTraversing through the old cedar trees that were too big to wrap my arms around while bouncing along the soft, sphagnum-covered forest floor with its creeping mat of snowberry and twinflower, and clambering switch-back up the rock faces to get to the lake in the center. The island is transitional boreal forest at its finest.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was time to explore.<\/p>\n
Star Island<\/p>\n
Drizzle and grey skies. The wind was forecasted to build, but an early start to the day would be to my advantage.<\/p>\n
It was early on the first day of fall, Tuesday, Sept.\u00a022, when my kayak blade entered the water at one of a few access points on West Kabenung Lake.<\/p>\n
It had been a cold night, frosty, but I camped at one of the access points, gated and signed by the Nature Conservancy of Canada; they are the new landowners.<\/p>\n
The map<\/a>\u00a0shows the interesting configuration of the island perimeter and the mainland \u2013 lots of nooks and crannies. That is enticing.<\/p>\n A counterclockwise paddle of Star Island was the objective; I don\u2019t think I have ever paddled around an island of such size (maybe Manitoulin is next).<\/p>\n Lots of islands and little bays and then a connecting channel and another – is because the island is not in the middle of a lake; it kind of divides the lake (again, see the map link). Katlin was right; this is\u00a0the transition to the boreal forest, lots of vegetative diversity.<\/p>\n On the east side there is a dominant ridge with exposed bedrock; it parallels the\u00a0route, and it is always on the\u00a0port side. I\u00a0followed it.<\/p>\n On the backside of the island, the fetch began to build, and so did the waves. I had to crisscross and seek protection. My carbon fibre Swift canoe was not loaded enough; should I go? I thought that in any changing conditions I\u00a0could get back to where I\u00a0started.<\/p>\n Finally, when circling\u00a0the island, the route enters a long wetland of emergent vegetation that delineates the way back towards the put-in. There is a very long vegetated sand spit that acts as a divider.<\/p>\n It is about 12 km around the island; there are two or three unofficial campsites. It is a paddling outing with lots of diversity, different than a river.<\/p>\n A worthwhile adventure, a few hours of exploring, easily accessed, new terrain, now protected from development.<\/p>\n It was a fun outing. Just paddling and thinking.<\/p>\n Post-paddle history<\/p>\n On the thinking side of things, the specific previous landowner or corporate seller of the Kabenung Lakes and Forests property has not been publicly named in the\u00a0Nature Conservancy of Canada acquisition announcements.<\/p>\n Just the notion that these large tracts of land exist as private pieces of property got me exploring differently.<\/p>\n Up until 1905, the province frequently utilized massive Crown land grants to incentivize private corporations to build railway lines into “New Ontario” (the resource-rich northern region).<\/p>\n Under this Land Grant Aid Act (Ontario) of 1900, railways received land grants. As an example, the Algoma Central Railway (ACR) received over 1.6 million acres of forest lands, in and around the region was Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst.<\/p>\n Over the years, these vast land parcels were held, or severed and managed, and eventually sold off in major corporate divestments as the ACR shifted its focus away from real estate and land holdings. In 1997, the ACR sold its considerable land holdings north of the Sault\u00a0(816,000 acres) to the McDonald Investment Co. Inc. of Birmingham, Alabama.<\/p>\n I found another example in 2005: Abitibi Consolidated Inc. sold off 196,000 acres of timberland in the Thunder Bay region to American-owned NorthStar Forest Ltd., a subsidiary of Wagner Forest Management Ltd., for $55 million.<\/p>\n Wagner Forest Management, Ltd. is an American timberland investment management organization that acts as the primary manager and operational supervisor for the massive land holdings acquired by McDonald Investment Co.<\/p>\n Two years ago, in a LinkedIn post, President of Wagner, Dan Hudnut, said, \u201cNorth Star Forestry, Ltd. has decided to offer for sale its Voyageur property, located northwest of Thunder Bay, and managed by Wagner Forest Management, Ltd. The 480,000-acre property is in a handful of large blocks. The boreal forests are dominated by black spruce, jack pine, and aspen, and surround an incredible array of lakes and rivers. While this property has been sustainably managed for timber production for the last hundred years, its greatest future potential lies in its ability to store and sequester carbon. Finite Carbon has provided a preliminary feasibility study for a nature-based Improved Forest Management project that concludes the property has the potential to produce nearly 9 million tonnes of CO2e offsets in the next twenty years, including 7 million \u2018removal\u2019 credits.\u201d<\/p>\n So, there it is, \u201c\u2026While this property has been sustainably managed for timber production for the last hundred years, its greatest future potential lies in its ability to store and sequester carbon\u2026.\u201d It is the future: these carbon credits. There are large parcels of non-Crown Land out there with a new value for creating future revenue for buyers (protection) and sellers (profit).<\/p>\n There\u2019s more – in 2022 (finalized last year), a process started with the Nature Conservancy of Canada reaching a deal with Domtar to purchase a 1,500-square-km land parcel near Hearst \u2013 about twice the size of Toronto.<\/p>\n The conservancy\u00a0received $10 million from TD Securities to help with the on-the-ground conservation work of the Boreal Wildlands Carbon Project near Hearst. It was then that the phrase \u201cpositive carbon-neutral future\u201d started to emerge. Apparently, the Boreal Wildlands is storing 190 million tonnes of carbon, or the equivalent of the lifetime emissions of three million cars.<\/p>\n Then during the second week of October this year, the conservancy acquired 814 square kilometres (over 81,000 hectares) of boreal forest and peatlands south of Kapuskasing (80 km south), accessed via Swanson Road to the Chain of Lakes Road. Nature Conservancy of Canada said the carbon stored on the property could generate financing to support its long-term protection from commercial harvesting and potentially generate additional revenue for conservation work elsewhere in Canada.<\/p>\n