Two hikers sit on a ledge at the Cup and Saucer on one of Manitoulin's escarpment trails.

 by Cameron Smith

If, like so many others, you think of Manitoulin Island as pancake flat, or simply as a pleasant shortcut, via the Tobermorray Ferry, from southern to northwestern Ontario, you haven’t met Bob Barnett.

Barnett is an architect and conservationist, the driving force behind the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy which, in the short space of ten-and-a-half years, has acquired more than 27 square kilometres of land along the Niagara Escarpment.

Manitoulin, he’ll tell you, has 450 kilometres of escarpment in two branches that eventually combine to reach the western tip of the island, and “there are spectacular and dramatic things to see: vistas over the Bay of Islands to the La Cloche Mountains, cliffs, sloping woodlands, alvars, waterfalls, wetlands, ever-changing shorelines...”

Descriptions tumble from him. Connecting ecosystems along the escarpment has become his passion.

“But why,” I ask, and there’s not a nanosecond between my question and his answer: “It’s so that our grandchildren will see what we grew up with,” he says, and he’s referring not just to his own grandchildren.

Answering another question, he says the Biosphere Conservancy is not in competition with the Bruce Trail Conservancy, which is concerned with protecting land along the trail to where it ends at the top of the Bruce Peninsula. The Biosphere Conservancy is trying to connect ecosystems in the watersheds that reach across the escarpment to Lake Huron.

On Manitoulin, in addition to connecting ecosystems, the Biosphere Conservancy wants to create its own trails along the island escarpment.

However, it’s running into difficulty. The Manitoulin Landowners’ Association has posted signs saying: “This Land Is Our Land. Back Off Government and NGOs.”

As nearly as I can make out, it’s a classic case of people who have farmed in the area for generations reacting against change that over the past ten years has been fast intruding on their way of life.

Spokesmen for the association have given numerous interviews to the local press citing all kinds of worries: possible trespassing, the impact on property taxes, liability, interference with livestock. But the dominant concern seems to be the fear that if a trail is allowed, someday the provincial government may take an interest and begin expanding its regulations.

In particular there’s the fear that the Niagara Escarpment Commission may extend its reach beyond the Bruce Peninsula.

In a letter to the editor of the Manitoulin Expositor, Barnett responded. “Twenty-three years ago,” he wrote, “my family and I started hiking from Niagara to Tobermorray.  It took us two-and-a-half years and 57 hikes, and by the end my life had changed.

“We had forged a special bond with our children, they saw the world in a different way, and I had found my vocation. We saw the changing seasons, plants, trees, animals. We also saw how fragile this place was.

“Each year as we walked, we noticed forest corridors becoming narrower, pastures and farmland being paved over, shorelines disappearing. I decided my work would be to preserve as much as possible of this precious heritage along the escarpment.”

Members of the Landowners’ Association reply that they don’t need any help in protecting the land.

However, there’s a larger view that can be taken. The greater the number of people who can experience nature close up, the stronger will be public support for ensuring that grandchildren will see what we see now. That’s a goal everyone can agree on. The only question is how to collaborate in reaching it.