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THE BRUCE TRAIL CONSERVANCY

Past Calypso Orchid Award Recipients

 

In 2000, its inaugural year, the award was shared by the Cape Croker First Nation and the Peninsula Club for the construction of a new 800 metre long boardwalk through an environmentally sensitive marsh at the head of Sydney Bay. This is a fine example of the cooperation seen up and down the length of the Trail to enhance the walking experience, while also protecting the natural environment for all to enjoy.

 

Beth Kümmling, Chair of the Environment Committee, presented the award at the AGM to Nathan Keeshig, Cape Croker Indian Park Superintendent, and Donna Baker, President of the Peninsula Club. Each of the award recipients received a certificate and an engraved ironwood walking staff, donated by Hikers Haven. The Bruce Trail Conservancy hopes that the award will acknowledge environmental efforts for years to come, and help keep the vision of Arthur Storey – “to encourage and recognize efforts towards preserving and nurturing the unique treasures of the Bruce Trail” – alive and well..

 

John Burton was the 2001 recipient of the Calypso Orchid Award. John is a science teacher at Grey Highlands Secondary School in Flesherton, Ontario.  He established and began teaching an Environmental Studies Program for senior students at his school in 1992.  The award was officially presented at the AGM, hosted by the Iroquoia Club in Grimsby, Ontario. John Burton received a certificate and an engraved ironwood walking staff, donated by Hikers Haven.

 

The program John Burton developed focuses on ecology, water quality, forestry waste management, air and water pollution, and ways to reduce the human impact on our environment.  Each year about 30 students enroll in the program, which is an elective subject for which they pay a fee.  The students participated in a large number of field trips in the Beaver Valley area and the Bruce Peninsula National Park to enhance their learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom.  In an outdoor setting, program participants are also expected to provide instruction for elementary school students ranging from Kindergarten to grade 9 on environmental issues.

 

Community service is an integral part of the program designed to get students involved as volunteers in projects directed towards protecting the environment.  They have undertaken many large scale activities such as litter cleanup, trail maintenance, tree planting, recycling and campsite rehabilitation and contributed significantly to the maintenance of the Bruce Trail by cleaning up litter at Cyprus Lake, Lion’s Head, and Beaver Valley areas.  They have helped with several reroutes along the Bruce Trail in the Beaver Valley, at Skinners Bluff, and at Loon Lake on the Bruce Peninsula.  They also planted a large number of trees on two Bruce Trail properties near Epping and in the Beaver Valley.

 

Margaret Reed, the 2002 recipient of the Calypso Orchid Award, has spent more than 30 years crusading for the protection of the Cave Springs area of the Niagara Escarpment. In 1970 she serendipitously landed in Beamsville and began her great adventure, or as she calls it, “an attention-getting soap opera”.  Evidence of prehistoric Indians, “health-giving spring water” and an Ice Cave on the bench of the escarpment have made the area desirable for at least 12,000 years.   Her stay in what began as a temporary rent-free emergency haven has become a crusade that has spanned 33 years and resulted in a unique portion of the Niagara Escarpment, Cave Springs, being deemed a Nature Reserve.

Ms. Reed initially undertook the job as “unpaid caretaker” of the property that today comprises Cave Spring Farm.  In her words, “The surrounding land was piled with abandoned vehicles, rusty tractors and other unused materials.”  The “rotting barn” which is her home today had “no insulation, indoor plumbing or modern heating”.  Soon after she acquired the property she began to have problems with the Town of Lincoln and neighboring landowners who, for generations, had used the property.  Her attempts to restrict encroachment and abuse of the property led to court and many municipal hearings.

 

In 1980 she agreed to a life tenancy and full control of the property and became the “attendant”, authorized to conduct organized and supervised tours.   In addition to voluntarily conducting historical walking tours of the area for schools, the BTC and other interested parties, Margaret has written six books on Cave Springs including Tempest in a Teapot, Secrets of Cave Spring; The Cave Spring Mystique (1 and 2); Great Horned Owls at Cave Springs; and The Carolinian Forest at Cave Springs.  All of these activities have served to educate people about our history on the land, and the importance of preserving the ecology of the Niagara Escarpment.  Today Cave Springs, like the Bruce Trail, is part of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve.

 

George Francis, the recipient of the 2003 award, is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo. George has had a long association with the Canadian National Committee for the UNESCO “Man and the Biosphere” Program where he has at various times helped with the establishment of new biosphere reserves in Canada, carried our periodic reviews of them as are required by UNESCO, and participated in various UNESCO-sponsored meetings. He maintains this interest as an Honorary Director of the Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association, an organization he helped to found in 1997. It was through these affiliations that he was able to facilitate a biosphere reserve designation for the Niagara Escarpment in 1990. Thus through his activities, Dr. Francis was instrumental in getting the Niagara Escarpment designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1990, and in the recent renewal of this designation. He has contributed numerous articles to academic journals and popular publications, including articles on the Niagara Escarpment to Bruce Trail Magazine. George is a strong supporter of the Bruce Trail Conservancy and has acted as a resource person to the Conservancy on several occasions.

 

Calypso Orchid Environmental Award

Environment Committee

Beth Kümmling (right) receiving the Calypso Orchid Environment Award from Janine Zend, Chair of the Environment Committee

Beth Kümmling was the award recipient in 2005.  As part of her commitment to environmental issues along the Niagara Escarpment, Beth developed in 2003 a program of “Geology 101on Foot” hikes.  Using her expertise in geology she prepared “handout information sheets”, informed hike participants concerning ledges, boulders, potholes and fossils to better their understanding of how the Niagara Escarpment came to be, and of the Trail rock formations, and reminded them of man’s impact in the area.  The very popular hikes attract not only BTC members but also outside groups and individuals with an overall attendance well in excess of 400 people.  To date, Beth has organized and conducted over 20 hikes in many areas:  the Cheltenham Badlands and Creditstone Quarry; a waterfall and quarry in the Iroquoia area, Mount Nemo; Wodehouse Karst in the Beaver Valley; the Pretty River Valley; Rockwood Falls, Decew Falls and the Short Hills in the Niagara region; Cataract and the Devil’s Pulpit

at the Forks of the Credit; Dorcas Bay, near Wiarton and Cape Dundas, near Lion’s Head, and the cliffs and caves in Mono Cliffs Provincial Park.

 

Beth was also a driving force in the preparation of six interpretive signs with the Environment Committee, drafting the texts and sourcing illustrations.  The signs are located along the Trail on BTC owned properties: Skinner’s Bluff, Rock Hill Corner, Humber Heights, Cheltenham Badlands, Speyside Woods, and Thirty Mile Creek, and outline the geology and ecology of the area. 

 

With these two programs, Beth has significantly enhanced the education of Trail users and potential users.  The award was presented at the AGM in Owen Sound.

Alison Watt

In 2006 the award was presented posthumously to two recipients

In 1967 Len Gertler was asked by Premier John Robarts to research the effects of urban, mining and recreational development on the Niagara Escarpment.  The Natural Escarpment Study Conservation and Recreation Report, 1968, also known as the “Gertler Report”, made recommendations to protect the Niagara Escarpment  through land acquisition by government, land use regulation on private lands, restrictions on pits and quarries and development of a parks system.  The government endorsed the recommendations which led to the passage of the Niagara Escarpment Act and the formation of the Niagara Escarpment Commission.  Len Gertler provided the foundation for the preservation of the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve as we know it today.  The award was presented at the AGM to Denis Gertler, the eldest of the Gertler children.

Dennis Gertler, accepting the Award on behalf of his late father, Len Gertler, presented by Environment Committee Chair Janine Zend.

Wayne Townsend accepting on behalf of the late Walter Tovell.

Dr. Walter Tovell was a geology professor at the University of Toronto, a lifelong teacher and educator and a dedicated environmentalist.  His Guide to the Geology of the Niagara Escarpment, 1992, has helped many Ontarians in their understanding of the processes of its creation and greatly enhanced the education of users of the Bruce Trail and the Escarpment.  The award was presented at the AGM to Wayne Townsend, trustee of the Tovell estate and curator of the Dufferin County Museum and Archives which houses the Tovell archives.

Bruce Trail Conservancy Environment Committee

In 2007 the award was presented in August  to Bruce Krug. Bruce was one of the founding members of the Peninsula club.  Together with his brother Howard (who passed away ten years ago), they organized a team of volunteers and worked several years to build the last section of the trail all the way from Dyer’s Bay to Tobermory under difficult access conditions.  The section was completed just in time for the official opening in 1967 of Canada’s Centennial Trail.  As Trail landowners, the Krug brothers gave “handshake agreements” for Trail users to cross their land, an arrangement which Bruce continues to this day.

 

Over two decades from the 1960s to 1980s, Bruce and his brother erected bluebird boxes in the Northern part of the Bruce Peninsula reestablishing their population in the area.  But the deepest and most abiding interest of Bruce and his brother lay in the proper use and conservation of woodlots.  Since the early years of

last century, they understood and practiced the concept of sustainable yield and selective cutting, leaving 75% of mature trees standing, at a time where most others were logging clear cut.  Thanks to their thoughtful forest management a scattering of virgin pine trees still remain in the Dyer’s Bay part of the Escarpment.

 

Through his decades of effort, especially in forest management, Bruce Krug, together with Howard, preserved the Trail and the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve, protecting its natural ecology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BTC EC Chair Janine Zend presenting the 2007 Calypso Orchid Award to Bruce Krug