The beautiful region of Temagami located in the northeastern Ontario area with lake Temagami at it's heart is a hot spot of outdoorsy people ready for an adventure. It has beloved nature all throughout the area, such as trees older than 300 hundred years old, and clear, deep blue lakes.
For many years Ontario made a promise to protect Temagami... however recently Ontario has decided to break it's promise to protect the ecological gem, which is an old-growth forest near Temagami. Currently the area surrounding Wolf lake (which is probably the most beautiful lake I've ever been to. It has the clearest turquoises water ever.) from being a forest reserve to becoming an area of general use. Meaning the area will become a location of mining and less about the forests and recreational activities, such as camping.
This is a world issue on a smaller scheme of things, but if the agreement to protect the land of Wolf lake lasted longer, and the government did not renew the Flag Resources' mining lease, it would eventually turn the location into Parkland, making it a National Park along with the likes of Algonquin Park, meaning it would fully be protected and preserved.
This is a classic case of policy conflict between the Natural Resources Ministry and the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. Apparently there is no requirement that the lease renewal be jointly discussed by the two ministries, which is another prime example of bad environmental policy and how often the government puts anything else first before nature.
In 2009 they tried to make changes to the mining act that would allow the government to buy out mining claims on land if it was area of clear ecological consequences...however no action was taken and the changes were denied. So in the end, the government's response is they are going to open up Temagami and make it general use, and ignore the wants of the Natural Resources Ministry.
Apparently the Flag Resources say there is potential to find gold, copper, coblat and palladium mines and they've already spent 8 million dollars on drilling holes.
The Flag Resources has done plenty of mining work in Calgary and says the environmentalists have no concern about them, and I quote, "You better make that clear. We've cleaned up everything. There's not a goddamned bush that has been disturbed and we've never had one formal complaint after 200 drill holes.”
But from the other perspective, the environmental group Earthroots have been complaining the the Ontario Governement for years that mining in general should not be allowed in the Wolf Lake Region, because the rules surrounding clearing land and digging trenches are just too lax for such sensitive land. And even though the Flag Resources claim that once they are done mining they would put everything back to how it was, it isn't the same and it could never truly go back to how it was, too much nature would be disturbed.
Another negative impact on opening up the Wolf lake region to general use, forestry companies would start pressuring the government to allow logging of trees... trees that are super old and rare, the most red-pine dominated forest in North America, aka excellent quality wood in the eyes of loggers. Given the fact that nature is low on the governments list of things to care about, I predict they would eventually give in to the forestry companies and trees would promptly start being cut down, destroying the beautiful land even further.
There will probably be a constant war between the two ministries, but a solution I think would work is if they just dropped it. So what? The land is filled with many minerals and excellent material, the point is not what lays beneath the ground, the point is to enjoy the nature and the environment. Humans have already destroyed so much around the world for mining and logging. Leave Temagami alone. The land is filled with historic trees, and undisturbed aboriginal land, you just can't put back history or regrow it once it's been tampered with. The main solution is to make Temagami and provincial park that way it'll be protected for good.
Sadly, it's doubtful that will happen...and my prediction is it will get torn up my miners, possibly as soon as this coming summer. I do however believe it'll be a at least a little longer before loggers are allowed in, because i assume plenty of people who use Temagami as a getaway from their busy lives in the city would be outraged by the thought of people cutting down those ancient trees and many protests will arise. In fact, there is a possibility that so many protests would happen that the loggers won't ever be allowed in, or at least only be allowed a small portion of trees to cut down. In the far future though, it's quite possible the entire Wolf Lake region will be gone, if each year a little more mining is allowed.
I wish the government would care more about the environment and natural areas, we don't really have all that many left.
**All pictures are from my 2 week Temagami trip! Some are even from Wolf Lake themselves.
"Temagami." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
Welsh, Moira. "Toronto News: Ontario Breaks Temagami Pledge - Thestar.com." Thestar.com. 12 Dec. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.
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