A delegation of 10 members from the environmental group For Our Grandchildren visited Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith’s constituency office on Monday (November 6) to deliver 100 postcards urging the Ford government to protect old-growth trees in the Catchacoma Forest from logging and to preserve the Greenbelt.
The group had organized a write-in campaign in May as part of Artsweek Peterborough, where 100 residents decorated and signed the postcards.
The Catchacoma Forest is a 662-hectare stand of mature eastern hemlock north of Catchacoma Lake in Peterborough County, beside Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park. In 2019, Dr. Peter Quinby, chief scientist of the Peterborough-based non-profit Ancient Forest Exploration & Research (AFER), identified the forest as the largest-known stand of old-growth eastern hemlock in Canada after AFER found many trees over 120 years old — with the oldest tree, a 350-year-old eastern hemlock, marked for logging.
The documentary film Conserving Catchacoma, which premiered at the 2022 ReFrame Film Festival, follows the efforts of the Conserving Catchacoma group to protect the old-growth hemlock in the forest, which is also home to at least 10 documented species at risk.
The Bancroft Minden Forest Company holds the license to manage the Crown land within the area, which includes logging, and the postcards appealed to the provincial government to withdraw the license and to make the forest part of Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park.
The other message on the postcards concerned development on Greenbelt lands.
“Although since May the government has reversed its course on allowing development in the Greenbelt, it is still planning incursions in these lands, pushing expanded municipal boundaries and projects such as Highway 413,” reads a media release from For Our Grandchildren.
The group adds that sensible development would stop urban sprawl and recognize the significant habitat and important agricultural land contained in the Greenbelt.
“The delegation encouraged MPP Smith to speak out for us all and put action on the climate crisis on the agenda of the Ford government,” reads the media release.
