After 16 years of volunteer service to the area’s natural resources, the Wellington County Stewardship Council (WCSC) has shut down.
That may leave its many environmental initiatives in the hands of local municipalities.
The volunteer organization, which helped start the Green Legacy Program and Trees for Mapleton, announced on April 28 that the provincial government has withdrawn funding, necessitating individual councils to purchase costly liability insurance— giving them no choice but to disband.
Until recently, stewardship councils across the province received a small annual budget of $10,000, as well as insurance coverage. In Wellington alone, this resulted in a yearly return of up to $1 million in leveraged resources, including time and money committed to stewardship, officials say.
With 47 stewardship councils in the province up until 2012, this accounted for multiple millions of dollars.
Paul Day, former chair of the WCSC, is disappointed the organization’s work hasn’t been taken more seriously by the province.
“A conservative estimate of 60 different projects were established (by the WCSC), and I see it as a loss, that’s for sure,” he told the Advertiser.
“I think (the government) is looking for ways to save money and obviously to many people, the environment is basically a pretty easy place to move away from.”
Among the more noteworthy WCSC projects are:
– the Community Forestry Initiative leading to Wellington County’s Green Legacy Program, a United Nations recognized nursery and planting program that planted its millionth tree in 2013;
– removal of a dam and restoration of the adjacent lands along Marden and Mill Creek for water quality improvement;
– the Trees for Mapleton Program supporting tree planting for windbreaks in Mapleton Township; and
– leadership for woodlot owners included in workshops plus funding of environment-protecting skidder bridges.
Some projects, such as the Green Legacy Program, have already been embraced by the county and will be on-going.
However, the possibility of future projects remains uncertain. Day says tasks previously administered by the stewardship council will now likely fall under the responsibilities of municipalities and conservation authorities – two sectors also feeling the effects of reduced government funding.
“I would hope that there’s been a recognition by municipal councils that it’s a critical part of our future to be very aware of the environment and look after it,” Day says.
The WCSC’s final venture before shutting down for good will be getting local governments started on planning future projects, with the hope the council’s work will continue, at least in some form.
The council has partnered with a team of masters students from the University of Guelph, who are planning to generate an up-to-date Wellington County state of the environment report. This document will be of assistance for other environmental groups moving forward in the future by red-flagging potential environmental risk areas so township councils can direct their efforts accordingly.
Mark Van Patter, senior planner for the county, said in a WCSC press release he was “upset, yet not surprised to see such a good program cut.” Van Patter expressed “on-going concerns about the lack of focus on rural Ontario and the environment.”
Though it is hard for WCSC officials to see their valued program end, they hope the awareness built over the last decade and a half with landowners, partners, volunteers and students will continue on.
“I think it’s just becoming clear to a lot of folks, that with climate change and violent storm events, that it’s not only the land that’s at risk – it’s our infrastructure, and it can be wiped out overnight… and it becomes very costly for the local landowners and taxpayers,” Day warned.
“So it’s far better to try [prevention] through the proper green infrastructure, and that’s been our approach."
