Nr. 11
EESTI ELU reedel, 19. märtsil 2021 — Friday, March 19, 2021
77 acres along the Black River protected thanks to Marley family and The Couchiching Conservancy
shared president of the Couchiching Conservancy, Neil Gray. “There is still a strong desire to protect land along the Black River Wildlands. This is demonstrated by generous do nors such as the Marley family. I would like to extend a huge thanks to the Marley family for their donation of land to the Conservancy”. This particular parcel helps fulfill the Conservancy’s long term plan of assembling large tracts of habitat. These corridors are es pecially important in letting species move freely throughout their ecosystem. We are very grateful to add the Marley prop erty to the land already protect ed along the corridor. Story and History of the Property from the Marley family:
The Conservancy is celebrat ing its newest Nature Reserve, thanks to a donation by the Marley family! Located 17km east of Washago, it is between the Adams Nature Reserve (10 km to west, protected in 2016), Taylor Nature Reserve (4.7km to the west, protected in 2020) and Ron Reid Nature Reserve (2.6 km to east, protected in
2017), the property has a direct connection to the Ontario Parks Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park (QEII) at the southern boundary. It is Anishinabewaki, Huron-Wen dat, Mississauga and Haude nosaunee territory. Landscape and Species: • Typical mix of Canadian Shield granite rock with wet
Reet and Jaanus Marley
Leida and Roman Marley
wooded ravines; • Several small marshy areas that are defined by their button bush and meadowsweet shrubs; • Open rock outcrops are lushly covered in lichens and mosses with small cherry trees estab lishing themselves in the cracks and crevasses; • Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole and many more; • Moose, Black Bear and White-tailed Deer; • Otter, Beaver and Muskrats are commonly observed along the Black River; • Painted Trillium and many fern species are found along the riverbank. The Black River Wildlands has been identified as a priority area for protection by the Conservancy due to the pres ence of Species at Risk, oppor tunities for protection and con nection to other conserved lands. This work is within the Conservancy’s Corridors Cam paign with includes the Carden Alvar which lies to the southeast. Donations to this Cam paign helps to power the Conservancy to carry out land owner discussions, moving a donation through the Ecological Gifts process and has supported the creation of this Reserve. This project was made possi ble by a 100% donation by the Marley family to The Cou chiching Conservancy under the Government of Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program. This program provides enhanced tax incentives for individuals or corporations who donate eco logically significant land. The family has donated the southern parcel of 77-acres while retain ing the parcel north of the river with their family cottage on it. “During this trying time of Covid, the Conservancy has had to adapt its work in many ways but there has been no change to the way our amazing members have continued to support the protection of natural habitats”,
When Leida Randsalu and Roman Marley were forced to leave behind their homes in Estonia due to the advancing Soviet Army in the fall of 1944, they found refuge in Sweden. There they married and had a son, Jaanus. In 1951, they were welcomed as immigrants to Canada and had a second son, Toomas. Once they had settled here, found jobs and bought a house in Toronto, it was important to them to have some property with more space and close to water. “A family needs land!” said Roman. In September 1962, he found an advertise ment for a 100 acre property with a river running through it. He obtained a map and the fam ily got into the 1961 Pontiac and drove there. On that day a Boy Scout Troop was camping there. After talking with the boys and walking along the riv er, the property was to every one’s liking and just what was needed – trees, water, cliffs to climb and animal trails to walk along. Thus, in 1962, they pur chased 100 acres on the Black River for $900! Initially, they built a small cottage and as the family grew, an addition was built. They thought it was very important to have a place to run around, be in nature and be free. Leida, Roman and their fam ily which now includes 5 grand children and 3 great-grand daughters have enjoyed many wonderful years on the proper ty. It is a great place to watch turtles hatching and laying eggs, follow the life cycles of butterflies, make maple syrup, observe the behaviour of foxes, beavers and moose, watch the night sky and listen to whippoor-wills, owls and cuckoos. We have been able to enjoy the property in all seasons, al though the black flies and mos quitoes do make springtime dif ficult. “So many of my childhood memories are of the cottage – baking bread outside with my grandmother in the woodfired oven, staging plays with my cousins where we weren’t both ering anyone with how loud we were, climbing to the top of the cliff and exploring forest depths, rolling in the snow from
11
On the wall… (Continued from page 8)
We could see prints by Laarman in this light. However, more than being a mix of per spectives, his prints distill something we see with our eyes into their most simplified pieces. The clutter is removed. Laarman depicted fairly stan dard subject matter for a cubist practitioner. Portraits, abstrac tion, and a few industrial images. There’s also one of a cellist. Something about acous tic instruments appeals to cub ists despite their roundness. However, he also ventured out side of this style, covering more detailed rural Estonian scenes of forests, swans, and crows on wooden fences. Artists aren’t stuck in one stylistic format, and truly, some ideas can’t be expressed unless you try out new tools and techniques. There is a baker’s dozen of sections you can access on the virtual gallery, and when you click on one of these links, look out for the play and pause but tons, which start and stop the rotation of art in that section, as though you were walking around taking them in sequen tially. You can see the virtual exhi bition at mart125.laarman.ee.
a winter sauna.” – Karin Marley “Our cottage is one of the places where I have developed a love and passion for nature throughout my life. It’s a place that’s calm, where we can dis connect and immerse ourselves in nature. But we chuckle a bit when people comment on how quiet it must be up there. At the Black River, surrounded by wetlands, the river and the for est, nature is never really quiet. We’re glad to have a place that’s so loud with nature sounds, whether that’s the nighttime chorus of spring peepers, the red squirrels squab bling in the trees, poplar leaves rustling in the wind, or the phoebes feeding their young in their nest above my bedroom window.” – Elin Marley “Leida and Roman are no longer with us but we hope to continue enjoying the cottage for many years to come. For that reason, we have decided to donate about 9 tenths of the land to The Couchiching Conservancy so that it can be enjoyed by others and protected from development.” – Reet and Jaanus Marley “Preserving this piece of land will preserve my grandpar ents’ dreams from their time as new immigrants, and their love of the country that became their home.” – Karin Marley “I am so thankful to my grandparents for giving us this place, and proud that we can share part of our property with a community of like-minded na ture nuts.” – Elin Marley Information contributed by Reet and Januus Marley, Karin Marley and Elin Marley.
