Logging Continued

The French River and Georgian Bay Area: Shaping Landscapes

Obviously the French River has historical significance in my family. We have continued to travel there to camp and fish over many generations. We took my Granny back up there more than 80 years following her first winter in that logging camp. Every fall my family makes a trip up North to fish the rivers that feed Georgian Bay. Now days, it is obvious the effects that both natural processes and humans have had on the French River landscape. One source says, “glaciers and thousands of years erosion shaped the beautifully worn rocks, while loggers left us with forests with few trees more than a hundred years old.” (Jost, Hamr, Filion, & Mallory, 1999).  Another study has shown “Human disturbances, such as hunting, trapping, tourism, cottage development, logging, mining, non-native plant species, and fire, have had a great impact on the forest ecosystem in this region” referring of course to the French River Provincial Park (Clifford, 2012). Today, as the French River is a provincial park, there are many regulations and policies governing its protection. As we know the only provincial park in Ontario that permits logging is Algonquin Park (Dearden & Rollins, 2009). However, a threat that is being addressed in the French River is the invasive lamprey. The lamprey eel arrived in the French River in about 1950, and devastated the fishing industry (Clifford, 2012). Today, we can still find lamprey in the rivers, and I was fortunate enough to catch one on the side of my salmon. 

My Granny at French River

French River

Us at Georgian Bay

The Lamprey