July 2005

OK. So we don't have a large membership yet, but the potential is enormous. Just think of it, a city full of trees, and parks, and people. Barrie is like many Canadian cities, a city of industry and energy; a city positioned between Canada's southern urban sprawl and the vast forest communities of central and northern Ontario.

I anticipate a growing challenge in our community to become increasingly aware of the trees and forests around us, of the many ways they contribute to our health and welfare. Conversely, we should become more aware of the consequences of abuse of our forest environment through neglect, vandalism, and especially uncontrolled development..

Progress is much more than simply about growth. It is about improving the quality of our living environment, people and nature, and contributing to a healthier, happier community as well. While growth is apparently inevitable, how successfully we grow may well depend on how we care for our urban forest as housing developments continue to expand our (unofficial) city limits.

So, without further ado, the rest of this newsletter will begin to paint a picture of forestry in Barrie, beginning with various concepts of what forestry is, and why this writer believes that learning about forestry could provide a bright new perspective on our living environment, the trees and the people of Barrie.

Rather than going into definitions at this stage of the game, I will offer suggestions about what sort of club this could be. To begin with, I have used the term "Club" for a good reason - to have fun! For me, a club is both a place where people meet and it refers to the group of people themselves. If an experience is to have enduring value it must be an experience that we wish to keep on having.

The Barrie Forestry Club would, I hope, become such an experience where we would all get to know the forest close to home, as well as learn about other forests in other cities, other countrysides and other countries as well. Field trips would be frequent, in any season, and we wouldn't have to go very far. After all, we are already in the forest

Which brings me to "perspective". It would be a chief aim of the club to look at the world through the eyes of forest people. When we look at a city street, do we see a strip of asphalt, bordered with sewers, lawns and houses or do we notice the trees as well - and the gardens too. Do we notice that when we walk into a treed area from a hot parking lot, how traffic sounds become muffled, how temperatures drop, and how pleasant ones surrounding quickly become. OK, there are also roots to trip over, and bugs - get over it!

Now try to take this (possibly) new perspective back into the streets, and into areas of new development and experience the harsh difference. Enough said - for now. I am a forester. As such, this viewpoint has become ingrained in me over the years. I believe it is a healthy perspective which could well become a part of the thinking of our decision makers, the ones who (hopefully) control what happens to the environment around us.

I am beginning to sound like a lobbyist. I think that this is about the last thing that the BFC should become. The club would be about sharing experiences, observations from about town or about things we have witnessed elsewhere in Canada or in other countries. We would learn from each other and would even stray from the forest focus from time to time. Then again, we couldn't get far away from the forest anyway. We're surrounded!!

If you look at our website, which is rather skeletal at the moment, you should begin to get a good idea of what our club could do. As a starting point we would meet somewhere and discuss what to do next. I would suggest that we would then visit a suitable woodlot where we could walk and talk about possibilities.

One of my first thoughts was to assign parks close to where members live, where they could make observations about the trees, wildlife and people in and around their special park. Eventually, we would hold field trips to each of these parks, and our individual observations could be shared. In this way, each park could be tallied and tracked, its history recorded for posterity, and perhaps some parks could be saved from extinction this way.

Another strong possibility would be to invite speakers to our inside gatherings, who could talk about anything we would like to hear about. We could ask the city forester to speak about the parks, and street trees of Barrie or we could invite someone to bring us up to date on the latest tree diseases - oh joy! I would personally like to have someone come to talk about forests of the world, a global perspective, but someone who could easily tie in our local issues with those that exist would-wide. Other people's solutions could well be ours.

And so on, the list of possibilities is endless. I will keep track of these ideas somewhere on the website. Perhaps, after the club has been meeting for some time, our focus will change somewhat, as influenced by our club members, and by the speakers we have invited to our meetings.

Also - we could network with other communities eeverywhere. To begin with, we should locate and tie in with like-minded groups in our own community, and then with similar communities in southern Ontario. We could even encourage people in other communities to develop forestry-like clubs of their own and see where that goes.

In my next newsletter I will include information about and pictures of Barrie woods and street trees, which will also be reflected on the website. If you have the capability, please visit there regularly, and offer your suggestions by email.

This is the first club newsletter, of which there will be many. Please keep this one as a reminder of this new club and, who knows, it may well become a collector's item some day. Right. Have a great summer.