Fellow Kawarthians....

Hello friends

My name is Marc. I'm a resident of Lindsay Ontario. Just over 3 years ago, I moved here from Brooklin Ontario. Prior to that, I lived in Toronto (Scarborough, East York and Toronto to be exact). When I've looked at these communities, I've always had a strong feeling that says..."this can't go on like this"... I see that it is unsustainable. Don't get me wrong - I'm not anti growth. It's clear to me though, as it is to many, many others, that we can not continue to grow the way we have. We are too wasteful, too indoctinated in the ways of being good little consumers, and, in short, we are destroying not only the habitat of every other animal on the planet (except for the raccoon of course) but also that of what is perhaps the most wondrous animal of all - us! (okay, we're just behind tigers and dolphins).

I look at this area that I now live in: the, so called, "city of Kawartha Lakes" - Not sure what kind of drugs they were on when they decided to call this region a city, but they were obviously very strong. This region seems like it could be so beautiful, largely due to the fact that it has an unbelievable number of lakes and waterways. I believe these waters have much to tell us about how we've been managing this region. Take the Scugog River for example, which runs from Lake Scugog in Port Perry to Sturgeon Lake. This river has become a cesspool of contaminants. There is the aptly named "Sinister Creek" which empties into Scugog River and which is contaminated with PCBs from the former Union Carbide site. (Don't worry folks, the new owners of the site, Dow Chemical, assure us that PCB's are not a human health hazard, but merely an environmental hazard). I've spoken with a commercial fisherman (woman actually) who warned me to avoid the fish from Scugog as the fish meat is unnaturally soft in her opinion - stick with the deep cold lakes she told me.

When I was first looking for a home in this region, I put an offer in on a hobby farm on Telecom Rd. near Pontypool, only to discover that just up the street, was the site of the old town dump. You'd never know it to look at the site as it is now covered with trees and appears quite lovely. I only discovered this fact as I have a friend in Pontypool that informed me of this old toxic site. This old town dump was of course from a time when there were essentially no controls on who put what in it. God knows what is in there. The surface water went from the landfill and came right across the back of the property I was interested in. With a little more investigation, I discovered that contamination is being tracked at underground sites and is moving toward Pigeon Lake. Needless to say, I withdrew my offer.

We all know that there are people who have lived in the Kawartha Lakes region for years and could tell us horror stories about what toxins were leaked here, what chemicals were conveniently buried there, and we know that these type of events have occurred over and over again, essentially everywhere that man habitates. The waterways could tell some real life crime stories if they could only speak. I don't think I've seen a single person swimming in the Scugog River since I moved here over 3 years ago. But people will drink it. Hmmm. I've canoed the Scugog many times now, and the canoe usually comes out with a nice scummy ring around it. I don't know what that foam is - I see it everywhere in the river- but I really doubt it was there a hundred years ago. I guess it's easy for some people to just see the beauty of our waters in this region, but I can't help to also see what we've done...and that is substantial. I know for example that there are houses that have drains that go directly into the Scugog without any treatment whatsoever. Those people that dump their oil, solvents, medications, etc down the drain, may not realize (don't care?) that it may be going directly into their river they get their drinking water from.

So our beautiful waters in this "city" of Kawartha Lakes have many stories that I'm sure need to be told. And here comes the exciting part...we are the ones that have to come up with the remedies for all the damage that has been done, and continues to be done to perhaps our greatest single natural resource - water.

But this is about more than water. Our water is a great indicator of the health of the region and we should pay attention to what it can tell us. The scope of our challenges require us to take a multi-faceted approach. We are the generation that needs to look at these challenges and find a perspective that will allow us to move forward again. The old ways and their fear-based perspective that have gotten us into this mess are clearly dysfunctional. We must discover or uncover functional ways to co-operate with nature and let go of our old fears that have driven us toward self destruction.

Are we too late to recover from our binge, our night on the town at the expense of nature, and ultimately ourselves? Despite our nasty hangover, surely there is something we can do. Humankind has genius available to it, and we must nurture this genius, and apply it to our problems, find the solutions, and work like hell to reverse these destructive trends. Friends, we have managed to put ourselves on the endangered species list. I don't think it's too late but we must pursue recovery in a sincere and willing manner. We must be willing to look at ourselves honestly, and be prepared to change in every way - not overnight, mind you, but one step at a time.

Our road to recovery begins with our admission that the way we are now living is not working for us but against us. We must read the signs that are now all around us that we have screwed with mother nature and she is pissed. We won't get out of this unscathed, but if we begin now, there is hope. That's what we've got and we should go with it.

My hope is that we can use this blog (ain't technology wonderful) to discuss these issues and find ways that we can work co-operatively toward solutions in our community. We can address some of the grave threats that are today facing us and examine how we might best deal with them. Finally, I hope that we can find the will to begin putting these plans into action and strengthening our community. I guess I see this blog as a sort of town hall and a call to action.

See you in the streets.
Marc