After 12 years, 9 months, and 20 days, it's time to leave for other things — with regrets for what I'm leaving, excitement for what lies ahead.

by Cameron Smith

This is my final column. I’ve had a grand time writing for the Star for almost 13 years, but it’s time to move on. One thing I want to do is try my hand at writing a novel. Three chapters are done, but at the rate I’ve been going it could take me another cramped lifetime to complete a first draft. Now, I’m going to have time to devote to it.

The column will be taken over by Peter Gorrie who, until he took early retirement this summer, was the Star’s environment reporter. Peter will write a fine column.

Even though it’s time to leave, it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s like coming off the dance floor while the orchestra is playing a mazurka. These are tremendously exciting times, with change ricocheting in every corner of the world. We will never see yesterday again, and if tomorrows are uncertain, at least they offer promise.

The greatest promise I witnessed while writing the column has been a growing public commitment to respecting the environment, especially during the past three or four years.

Let me give you a small, personal example. The township council where I live in the Thousand Islands area decided to replace the one-lane wooden bridge on our gravel road with a large, two-lane bridge.

However, there’s very little traffic on the road and residents want the new bridge to remain one-lane. Partly, they wanted to prevent traffic from speeding up, and partly they were concerned about turtles and other creatures that live in a small wetland on both sides of the bridge.

Among other things, the wetland is habitat for Blanding’s turtles, a species at risk. Every summer turtles, usually snapping turtles, get killed by cars on the road.

As meetings between residents and the township engineer progressed, it was interesting to watch attitudes change. The township engineer became more interested in turtles, the residents became more understanding of the township’s technical problems.

In the end the township engineer agreed the bridge could remain one-lane, but a bit wider than residents wanted. He also agreed that that all-season fencing will be erected to keep turtles off the road, and that the new bridge will have a removable steel grate in the middle.

The grate will allow the township to remove dams, which beavers insist on building under the bridge, and it will provide light in the culvert. Animals don’t like entering a long, black tunnel. With light, they’ll have safe passage through the culvert and across the road.

This is the kind of enlightened approach that’s possible — consultative, participatory, and creative. It’s beginning to happen in many places in the province, and I’ve written often about them.

Of course, there is going to be no shortage of monster issues that will take a long time to sort out. For instance two Sunday’s ago, The Independent, a British newspaper, reported on research indicating that electromagnetic fields created by electric power lines, transmission towers, and other means of electronic messaging, may be interfering with the ability of bees to identify the earth’s natural magnetic fields. Bees use these fields for orientation and navigation. The interference, the research suggested, may explain why such large numbers of bees are leaving hives and not returning.

This issue, and others just as complex, will eventually be resolved because people are increasingly determined to see them resolved. I see a rising tide of public engagement, and it’s heartwarming.

I will miss the dance, and all the generous people I’ve met. But leave I must, and so I say to those I’ve met, and to all those who followed my column, thank you so very much for caring.