Hey Gord,
How are things?
Is there any way I can coerce you into saying a couple of comments for an upcoming Muskoka Mag. article? It's on the state of Muskoka wild places, are we appreciating what we have any more, perhaps if my book "Wild Muskoka" has helped identify any areas of concern, how people (or your clients) may be appreciating what we have here. Just a short paragraph would help considerably, thanks. Let me know.
regards,
Hap
Sunrise Adventures
Hi Hap
Yesterday I went skiing with a friend in the large bush area near my house, about 10 km from downtown Huntsville (maybe only 9 km from WalMart...). We saw tracks of many species: fisher, wolf, fox, hare, grouse, moose, deer and even stumbled upon a freshly excavated wolf den. Despite the fact that we were mostly skiing on old logging roads and bush trails, the only human tracks we saw were a single snowmobile trail made by my neighbour and maybe the landowner. Yes, this was private property but I certainly did not feel like I was trespassing. By anybody's definition, this is a wild place, part of a wildlife corridor that runs from Lake Vernon to Sprucedale and beyond with few interruptions or road crossings. My cynical friend commented at the end of our tour that I'd probably wake up one morning and find that the whole area had suddenly turned into a golf course. Well, if that that ever happens, we'll sell our 50 acres to a golfer for some ridiculous price and move to a condo. This little tale is part of the answer to your question. Sure, there are wild places left in Muskoka. The hard part is finding them. The harder part is preserving them. Books like yours will help people find, use and appreciate the publicly accessible places. This is is a key step in the preservation process. We need more people like you writing books like "Wild Muskoka" so that residents and visitors can find the places that aren't overrun with development and offer a taste of wilder places. Those of us lucky enough to know about secret, private, stashes of wildness aren't about to tell the world but run the risk of waking up one day to a golf course in our backyard.
To me, the saddest thing is reading about the next "fractional ownership" development going in to a previously wild place in Muskoka. The newest one I've heard about is the Ryder's project on Upper and Lower Raft lakes (see the latest North Country Business for details). I was shocked when I figured out where this area is. These lakes are way north of Harp L, east of Oudaze Lake (near Kearney) and access is going to be via Williamsport Road, north of where it crosses the Big East R. It's insane. Williamsport is a rough road to start with and ends at least 10 km from the southern end of of Lower Raft Lake. Just the road building, through other wild areas, is going to a huge project (this aspect is not mentioned in the various articles about teh project in local papers). And this is going to be an enviro friendly development with geothermal heating, low shoreline impact, blah blah blah. The bottom line is that it is a development in a place that would be better off without development.
Here's a Google Maps link to the Raft Lake area.
Click here for an Ontario MNR description of the Upper Raft Lake Conservation Reserve, established under Lands for Life. This reserve is at the north end of Upper Raft and maybe explains why the road has to come in from the south.
Thinking about this got me wondering which is better (or worse, depending on your point-of-view), fractional ownership cottaging (FO for short -very appropriate acronym I think), or private cottaging. The private cottage is becoming more and more the domain of the very wealthy, making this type of vacation more and more inaccessible to the average person. O well. The rest of us can go camping or stay home and play Guitar Hero. The good news is that most private cottages are only used for a few weeks of the year,reducing the overall impact of the development. The goal of FO, on the other hand, is to maximize the use of the building and reduce the "entry fee," making cottaging accessible to more folks. Key word: more. More people in the area more often. Every week of the year filled with happy cottagers enjoying their fraction of paradise. More impact on the land, the water, the infrastructure, the septic, the wells. More boats and PWCs on the water. More ATVs on the bush trails. More traffic. More cars in town. More money for the developer. More, more, more.
Sorry. I know you asked for a short paragraph but I needed to rant a bit and figured you wouldn't mind.
Regards,
Gord
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