Earthroots in Temagami

Earthroots in Temagami

White Pines /White Lies?

by Claire Smerdon

Christmas 1996 HighGrader Magazine

The first time I saw Temagami, I was 12 years-old and it was raining. We'd been loaded into the camp buses in Toronto at dawn, paused in Burk's Falls (last contact with 'civilization') to stock up on gum and pop, then finally thumped along the Mine Road to Boatline Bay. Branches poked through the windows and the smell of balsam replaced Juicy Fruit. We were herded onto a barge. I leaned on the rail, catching grey-green glimpses of the islands and shore through the drizzle.

This was the Real North, nothing like those gentle deciduous forests, sandy beaches and plump pines of the Muskokas, where I'd spent the previous four summers. Real Rock. Real Trees. Deep Water. The best place I'd ever been.

This fascination with Temagami has never left me. Over the past 20 years, my husband Richard and I have paddled more than half of the traditional canoe routes in summer and fall, travelling the area on snowshoes, skis and snow machines in the winter.

When two canvassers arrived at my door in Toronto this summer asking for money to 'Save Temagami' naturally I was interested. Neither of them had ever been to Temagami. Tanya, a high school student, told me that with the lifting of the Land Caution, anyone armed with a chain saw could go in and start cutting down old-growth trees. Her companion assured me that once the forests had been clear-cut, the area would be turned into a vast open-pit mine. They knew nothing whatsoever about provincial policies on forestry management, mining exploration and resource extraction. Their lack of knowledge about Temagami was staggering.

The students were raising money to fuel the battle being waged by Earthroots in the Temagami region. Tanya and her friend were not volunteers. They'd been recruited through newspaper ads and were being paid to raise funds to save a place they knew nothing about. A place I really care about.

Until recently, Earthroots was just one of many environmental activist organizations in the Toronto area. This summer, with adoption of the province's land-use plan and the subsequent opening of selected areas of Temagami to resource extraction, Earthroots has found a reason to generate a major fundraising drive and hit the front pages - the protection of 'Temagami's Ancient Forests' from logging.

The Owain Forest, the focus of Earthroots' concern, is not particularly "ancient" - it's about 125 years old and has been selectively logged as many as three times - and it's not really in what most people think of as "Temagami" - the forest is part of the Lake Temiskaming watershed.

Tanya, when questioned, had never heard of the Owain Forest, although, at that precise moment, 18 Earthroots volunteers were camped there, practising civil disobedience tactics. She just wanted me to help 'Save Temagami'.

The two canvassers didn't get a donation. Instead they were treated to an hour long lecture complete with maps. After they left, I began to think a great deal about my relationship with Temagami. The students were well-meaning but they had misrepresented the region and its people while raising money for 'the cause': a cause that has been defined in the media by Earthroots. So, armed with five pages of questions and a borrowed tape recorder, I decided to pay Earthroots a visit and find out more about this organization.

Earthroots' headquarters is on the top floor of a renovated warehouse near Toronto's Queen Street West district. The atmosphere was jovial; people were eager to talk to me; I was loaded down with brochures. Participants in the Owain Forest camp described their experience in glowing detail. These were people who talk for a living - everyone was frighteningly articulate.

I first met with Dan McDermott, Executive Director (he joined the organization in 1992). I described Tanya's visit and told him I thought canvassers who exaggerated the issues in Temagami reflected badly on the credibility of his organization - and, indeed, the whole environmental movement. Dan shrugged, "They (canvassers) are given training as to what the organization does...A regular attempt is made to make sure they're current on what's happening with Earthroots, but we don't send them off to study forest ecology."

The role of the canvasser is, of course, not to educate, but to raise funds. If Tanya's emotional plea doesn't get you right away, she'll leave you some reading material. Six different Earthroots brochures present a muddling array of donation options, all featuring easy-to-use, tear-off forms to send in with your contribution. You can 'support Earthroots with a donation', 'join Earthroots with a membership donation', 'be a member', 'become a Boreal Defender', or 'support Earthroots fight to save the Temagami Wilderness'. You can give $40, $50, $75 or $100. Visa and Mastercard are both accepted.

Reading carefully through the brochures, you may note that Earthroots is comprised of two organizations: the Earthroots Fund, a registered charity whose mandate is education and outreach, and Earthroots Coalition, geared toward political action. Dan McDermott is the Executive Director of the Coalition, Sarah Winterton is the Executive Director of the Fund. The two groups share the same Board of Directors.

Where do the contributions go? According to Dan, if you become an Earthroots member, the money will 'likely' go to the Coalition. Sarah explained, "If you request a tax receipt, your money goes to the charitable organization and is used for research and educational purposes. We specifically say to people that if you want to contribute to lobbying, advocacy and even direct action - then do not request a tax receipt because those are non-charitable activities. That gives us the scope within the Fund to develop the research and education projects which are then usable by the Coalition."

But not one of the forms I've seen has a place to indicate I want a tax receipt.

This summer, Earthroots had three core staff, including Dan (his salary, which he says is the highest in the organization, is $32,000) and Sarah. They also contract professional specialists. Lea Ann Mallett was hired as the facilitator/trainer for the Owain Forest civil disobedience workshops and Hap Wilson was paid as a guide, to establish trails into the forest and set up the camp. An Earthroots Board Member, who is a lawyer, coordinates pro bono legal services for those who may require them. Cell phones don't work in Temagami, so the Owain Forest protesters keep in touch with the world through what Earthroots office staff refer to as "an extremely expensive satellite phone hook-up".

In June, before the big fundraising push, Earthroots boasted 10,000 members paying annual dues of $40 - a yearly income of $400,000 from memberships alone. This summer, Earthroots had 30 to 40 people canvassing, mostly in Toronto, but also in London, Ottawa and Peterborough. Paul Winterton, who is in charge of fundraising told me, "The canvassers are paid minimum wage, based on bringing in $110 during a four hour shift". The lowest 'membership donation' is $40, but several friends told me they donated over $50.

Before going to print, I phoned Earthroots to find out exactly how much money was in their annual operating budget. Dan McDermott didn't know. Putting his hand over the receiver, he shouted across the room, "Sarah, they want to know what the operating budget is. Do some fast math and it better be more than $400,000." Coming back on the line, he informed me that the operating budget for this year was between $500,000 and $600,000.

(HighGrader asked Sarah Winterton to provide a written budget for 1996. We received a 7 line synopsis stating income as $122,000 for the Coalition and $218,250 for the Fund for a total of $316,250 fundraising revenue. Salary, office and mail-out costs aren't itemized. The group states an operating loss of $14,700 -ed.)

Since none of this money is used for re-forestation, trail maintenance or conservation projects in the Temagami region, what aspects of 'Saving Temagami' cost money? According to Dan, "Having an office costs money, paying staff costs money, printing brochures and information. Doing even the simplest of demonstrations has expenses that go with it. The path that I was wearing out between here and Temagami last winter got incredibly expensive. Doing things like establishing the camp at Owain Lake costs money."

Does Earthroots have a target figure it's trying to reach? Says Dan, "We don't. At this point, more. More is what I want."

Dan McDermott received his BA in Business Administration, not Environmental Studies.

The View from Temagami

A few weeks after meeting with Earthroots, I was back up north. My visit to Temagami was a sharp contrast to the Earthroots interview. People were edgy. Nobody really wanted to talk. One long-time resident explained, "We've spent hours touring journalists around, flying them in to look at places, talking and talking and answering questions. Then they go away, misquote us, take what we've said out of context making us look like jerks and write whatever they want."

In Temagami, nobody had time to sit and chat. They were too busy making a living during the few brief weeks of summer. I interviewed tourist operators while they painted canoes, fixed boats and loaded trucks.

Some members of the community have expressed concern that Earthroots is doing considerable damage to the very 'eco-tourism' they have been promoting as an alternative to resource extraction. Local outfitter and environmentalist, Francis Boyes, disagrees. "I think that's just a load of crap. I don't think anyone has changed their plans to come to Temagami because of potential or proposed activities by Earthroots....If you speak to people who are veterans of the 1989 blockades, I think you will find that tourism increased because of those blockades."

Maybe. But my neighbours in Toronto were planning a canoe trip in Temagami this fall, and all summer they heard 'Temagami' and 'Trouble'. I assured them that the Owain Forest was so far from their proposed route it couldn't possibly affect them, but they went to Algonquin Park instead. Loss to outfitters - canoe and tent rentals for four people for 10 days, shuttles to Gamble Lake and Mowat Landing - about $1000.

The reality is that even without the protests, eco-tourism won't fill the void left by the closing of the Sherman Mine and Milnes lumber mill in 1989. Employees working for tourist businesses are often earning minimum wage, have little stability and seldom work enough weeks to qualify for UI. They're mainly second-income earners.

John Hodgson, Clerk-Treasurer for the Township, explains: "The only people tourism can sustain are the owners. There can only be so many owners. There's some profit for the owners, if they work like the dickens - and they all do or they fall by the wayside. It has to be a full family operation and the only time you employ somebody is when you really have to. You pay them minimum wage to get you through the busiest points."

At present, eco-tourism in Temagami is centred around canoeing, but we canoeists tend to be a cheap lot. Between 1977 and 1984, my husband and I spent approximately 200 days canoe tripping in the Temagami area. During that time, we may have filled the tank with gas or bought a snack but we did not contribute otherwise to the local economy. We rarely even went in to town!

And yet we made good use of the 18 kilometre Mine Road (aka the Lake Temagami Access Road), 6 km south of town, which is maintained at the expense of the Township. This road is used primarily by cottagers and Bear Island residents as well as being the main jumping off point for canoeists. Although these users may contribute to the local economy, they do not pay taxes to the Township of Temagami. The parking lots at the end of the road are maintained by the MNR. Parking is free. There are no fees for canoeing in Temagami.

Resource extraction and tourist operations have had a long history of co-existing in the Temagami region. The first youth camps were established on Lake Temagami in the early 1900s. Fishing lodges and private hotels sprang up as the islands became available for lease in 1906.

At one time there were 13 saw mills in the region and three producing mines. From 1956-1972 copper was mined on Temagami Island (hence the Mine Road). There is virtually no trace of this mine remaining - hiking and ski trails through Old Growth Forest ring the island. The children's camp, Camp Wabikon, has been located on the island since 1943, less than 2 km from the mine site. Popular tourist lodges dot the shore.

According to Bruce Hodgins and Jamie Benidickson's well-researched book, "The Temagami Experience", extensive logging operations took place along Temagami's most popular canoe routes up to the early 1960s. Hap Wilson's "Temagami Canoe Routes" describes the remnants of old logging and mining operations, from the old skidding sleighs on Diamond Lake to the prospector's cave on Bergeron, as special points of interest.

Most canoeists in the Temagami area were never aware of the existence of the massive Sherman Mine and Milnes Lumber operations unless they flew over them.

The possibility that these divergent interests will once again co-exist in Temagami is at the centre of the latest storm. As I write, Earthroots activists are trying to interfere with logging in the Owain Forest. They have been eagerly watched by journalists from across the continent.

This public relations battle has people in the local community worried. When the Comprehensive Planning Council made its report this summer (recommending that sensitive parts of Temagami be preserved, while opening up part of the land-base to development) people in Temagami began to hope that an economic turn-around was coming.

Logging won't play much of a role in this new order. During its shelterwood cut in the Owain forest, Goulard Lumber of Sturgeon Falls is only employing seven Temagami residents through to November.

A mine, however, would have a significant impact. "Our best case scenario is that there would be a mine between Temagami south and Temagami North, right near the gas line, right on the rail, right on the highway, right over a rich body of ore, employing two to three hundred people...If we had this, we would be back to the basic operating level of a community," says John Hodgson.

The Town is very concerned that protests in the Owain Forest will delay the development of any mining. Hodgson continues, "If the ore body is good enough, a mining company would go through the public process and the environmental assessment... If they think there's going to be too much hassle, then they'll wait..."

Town officials believe that Earthroots has been advancing their cause through misinformation and exaggeration. Says John Hodgson, "Earthroots can say whatever they want, they are not accountable to anybody. They can say, '70% of the place will be clear-cut', but nobody holds them to account. People in Toronto are giving money, feeling that their conscience is being satisfied, that things are going to happen with that money to help the forest....and they don't realize this campaign is being done at the expense of the truth. It's being done at the expense of the future of the people who live and work here and that, to me, is the worst."

Dan McDermott makes it very clear, that even if logging in the Owain forest were to cease, Earthroots wouldn't wash their hands of the region, "I don't think we're ever going to find ourselves completely divorced from what goes on in Temagami, no matter what occurs."

Changes

During my visit to the Earthroots office, Sarah Winterton said, "Over the 30 years you've been canoeing in Temagami, you must have seen a lot of changes."

She was right. The changes that came immediately to mind were long-gone man-made landmarks - a ranger cabin on Obabika, the Bear Island fire tower and old Hudson's Bay Post. Some are eyesores - burns at the Obabika Inlet and Macpherson Lake or a massive pine struck by lightening. Others impede travel - a portage made impassible by freak tornado, water levels altered at the whim of beavers. This stuff makes canoe tripping interesting. But the land has remained essentially the same.

The town has certainly changed since the mid-70s, even since last year. People are nervous. They seem to have aged, tired of being at the centre of controversy, tired of the future of their community being decided by outside forces.

The environmentalists have changed. The main participants in the Red Squirrel Road Blockade in 1989, many of whom were locals, are nowhere to be seen. They've been replaced by protesters from southern Ontario, led by paid professional activists.

I've changed, too. Over the last ten years, rather than just turning off at the Mine Road, I've got to know a lot of people in Temagami - and the whole Temiskaming area. I've shared a lot of coffees over kitchen tables and at the Shell (and a few beers on the deck). Getting to know people makes a difference in how you look at the place they call home.

I've seen a lot more of the Temagami wilderness than most people - possibly more than anyone who wasn't being paid to be there. I'm as demanding as any environmentalist for its preservation, but can't see why responsible resource extraction cannot continue to be a part of the whole economic picture.

I think of these changes and I think of sweet little Tanya, almost in tears over the fate of Old Growth Pine. Perhaps I was a little naive, expecting that people going door-to-door to save Temagami would be people who know how vast the land is and how complex the arguments are. However, I would expect that canvassers from a major environmental organization would have the same responsibility as other door-to-door salesmen to maintain an accurate standard of truth in their sales pitch.

But tearful Tanya is going to raise money far more effectively than someone offering a balanced, knowledgeable discussion. Not many people on my street know what a White Pine looks like, anyway. Tug the heartstrings - raise the funds.

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