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by Cameron Smith
Vidal Bay has everything -- which is why it’s important, and why I hope Bob Barnett will be successful in his efforts to acquire and protect it.
The bay is toward the northwest end of Manitoulin Island, on the North Channel, and all the land around it -- a huge area of 78 square kilometres -- is going to be sold at a public auction near Detroit twelve days from now. It’s believed to be the largest piece of undeveloped land under single ownership on the shores of the Great Lakes. Barnett is chair of the Escarpment Biosphere Trust, which seeks to preserve land on the Niagara Escarpment He is raising money and forging partnerships in hopes of presenting the winning bid at the auction. The property is being sold in one parcel and, according to the auction notice, no bid lower than $6.4 million (Can.) will be considered. The area contains some rarities that are worth protecting on an individual basis. But what makes the entire 78 square kilometres unique and worth saving is that rarest of all rarities: a section of land so big and so diverse that it can exist as an ecological unit independent of adjoining areas. Within its borders it contains most of the significant habitats found across the region. As Barnett says: ``There’s nothing like it anywhere else in Ontario.’’ It’s filled with fens, bogs, marshes, uplands, lowlands, meadows (including a coastal meadow), barrens, a salmon and trout-spawning stream, lakes (there are eight of them), and just about every kind of plant and animal found on Manitoulin. At one of the lakes there are yellow rails, birds listed as vulnerable on the endangered species list. And there are plants listed as rare, although not endangered, such as wallroot, purple stem cliffbrake, and Cathcart’s woodsia, all of which are ferns, as well as ram’s-head lady’s-slippers, an orchid, prairie dropseed, which is a grass, and dwarf birch. In addition, there’s a 60-hectare limestone alvar, which is important because other alvars that have been protected are dolomite. And most important of all, there are 17 kilometres of the Niagara Escarpment. Twenty years ago, a study for Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources found that the ``high species diversity, extraordinarily rich and diverse vegetation, and the large numbers of rare and significant plant species’’ offered a ``tremendous’’ opportunity to establish a natural environment park where ``the interpretive and hiking trail opportunities would be outstanding.’’ Apparently, however, the cost of the land turned out to be an obstacle, and it was never purchased. And although it has been up for sale for years, developers have shied away from it too, possibly because of the million-dollar cost of bringing in electricity, or the shallow waters in the bay, which makes for poor anchorage, or because so much of the 19.6-kilometre shoreline is boulder-strewn and extremely difficult to walk -- I know, because I walked it. So far the Nature Conservancy of Canada, an American investor interested in building an ecotourism lodge, and the Sheshegwaning First Nation have said they are interested in exploring the possibility of a partnership with Barnett’s conservancy. The Sheshegwaning say Vidal Bay was part of their ancestral lands and contains an ancient burial site. They also say it has caves, only recently found, that contain paintings that have never been archeologically investigated. All I can say is that it is an achingly beautiful place. It has been logged, but not clear cut, and the new trees are now 25 and 30 years old. And there are plenty of older trees, even cedars 18 metres high. So the forest is thick, and ever-changing. Sitting on the shore, gazing along the sweep of undisturbed shoreline reaching, it seems, half way to the horizon, or across the North Channel to the dark mountains slung low on the other side, is to linger with majesty and magic. Vidal Bay should be kept this way. But time is short. Barnett’s number, if there’s anything you can do to help, is (416) 960-8121.
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