aving wildernessS

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It was noted back in the pages of Algonquin Life 2019 that when Algonquin Park was established by the Ontario government in 1893 it was far from being a true, untouched wilderness. Loggers had harvested pine there for many years and fires had scarred the landscape. Much of what land was forested was characterized by second- or third-growth scrub. But the land was resilient and through the efforts of the park rangers, and lumber company and government fire rangers, the forests and lakes eventually recovered to the extent that people, especially those dwelling in the confines of cities and towns, began to consider it a wilderness of sorts.

During the new Park’s first two decades, two railways were constructed across it, and lodges sprang up alongside. In 1936, a public highway was opened through the southern portion of the Park. Both Park Superintendent George Bartlett and Park Superintendent Frank MacDougall made decisions to keep leases and other development out of the Park interior, in 1912 and 1931 respectively. In 1954, Park Superintendent George Phillips was quoted in a Maclean’s magazine article:

“It’s a battle without end ... To preserve a wilderness park you have to fight fires that would burn it up, bugs that would eat it up, lumbermen who would chop it down, poachers who would trap and shoot it clean, fish hogs who would catch every fish, wolves that would catch every deer and businessmen who would turn it into a honky-tonk of dance halls and hot-dog stands.”

In 1961, Park Naturalist Grant Tayler, in a paper on Wilderness camping in Algonquin Park, wrote:

“From the beginning of ... recorded history, the Algonquin Highland country has been used for wilderness camping ... It was the way of life to the Algonquin, Iroquois, and trapper. Modern man ... has turned this way of life into a form of recreation which is attracting thousands more every year. Modern equipment has not only eased the comfort of camping and increased the carrying capacity of the average man, but increased the number of people capable of camping. If this newly found recreation is permitted to expand uncontrolled, it will eventually spell the end of the wilderness ...”

In 1963, George Priddle conducted research regarding wilderness perception among Park users and discovered they were not looking for a pristine wilderness. Logging was not considered a concern at that time, although there was evidence of its presence. Priddle wrote: the “biggest complaint by all interior users of the Park was the amount of garbage on the campsites and along the canoe trails.” So, in

1969 and 1970 attempts were made to solve the garbage problem. In Algonquin Park – A Place Like No Other we read:

“In 1969 over $70,000 was spent in cleaning up the garbage that had accumulated since 1893 ... Thirty men were sent out in the spring to clean up campsites ... In the autumn a special effort was made to collect older cans and bottles that had accumulated on the most heavily used routes. The interior maintenance crews gathered 10,000 bushels (352,390 litres) of garbage that had accumulated in the interior of the Park, and that was taken out by truck, boat, and Otter aircraft, and then transported to the incinerator [and for otherwise appropriate disposal]. Beginning that year, yellow garbage bags were issued to interior campers so they could carry out their cans, bottles, and other non-burnable garbage.”

Throughout the 1960s, as more canoeists used the Park, the presence of logging had become more noticed. Other uses of Algonquin Park were beginning to come into conflict as well. Projections suggested that the number of visitors using the Park would almost double by 1975, so, in 1966, the Ontario government began to formulate a park plan based on Park Superintendent Frank MacDougall’s earlier concept of “multiple use.” A Provisional Master Plan was published in 1968. It included activity zones, meant to keep competing uses separated. The plan did not please everyone, but it was a start.

In September 1969, the Ontario government set out to produce a revised and improved Master Plan under the guidance and leadership of former Premier of Ontario Leslie Frost. In 1971, Leslie Frost commented to the Minister of Lands and Forests that the “principal problem of Algonquin Park is simply people.” Assisting Mr. Frost and Park Superintendent Bill Hueston in working with an Algonquin Park Advisory Committee of citizens and coordinating an Algonquin Park Task Force of government policy and research specialists was William “Bill” Calvert. When interviewed in 2012 for the Algonquin Oral History Project, Calvert commented on the challenge of protecting the “wilderness”: “Algonquin is full of non-conforming issues: logging, hunting, fishing, cottages, youth camps. All of the non-conforming issues are wrapped into one.” Some people wanted all the non-conforming uses, especially logging, eliminated and Algonquin to become a wilderness park. Those hopes were dashed in July 1973 when Minister of Natural Resources Leo Bernier referred to the Park as the “Average Man’s Wilderness” and established the Algonquin Forestry Authority to supply logs to local sawmills.

A means of balancing the conflicting interests was addressed in the Master Plan, written in large portion by Bill Calvert and published in late 1974. Again, dividing the Park into activity zones was a key concept. Included in the plan were a large recreation/ utilization zone in which strictly managed logging and traditional recreation activities would co-exist, development zones, historic zones, natural zones, and wilderness zones in which nature would be relatively undisturbed. In a 1975 article to announce the plan, Calvert wrote:

“Algonquin Park should be a natural environment where people of average means can escape for a while from the increasing pressures of urban life ... The outstanding feature of Algonquin Park is that it places within easy reach of the vast urban population of northeastern North America a reasonable example of the wilderness that covered this land before it was occupied by Europeans. Even if the present forest is somewhat different from the original, the ‘feel’ of wilderness is still there, and it requires only a little imagination to visualize its primeval state.”

Calvert considered preservation of the Park interior to be the main goal, professionally and personally: “That’s the real Algonquin.”

The basic objective of wilderness management, as written in the Master Plan, “is to maintain natural conditions as the ruling principle to which all activities and uses shall normally be subservient ... To achieve this, only those facilities, uses and land treatment measures which protect the area, provide visitor safety and perpetuate or enhance natural conditions will be permitted.” To accomplish that, it was necessary to consider special requirements of recreation management, including those primitive types of recreational improvements and facilities which are necessary for sanitation, fire and site protection, and for the protection and safety of users. Campsites and campsite access would be unobtrusive and located on bedrock where possible.

When interviewed in 2012, Calvert’s canoeing and trails specialist, Craig MacDonald, recalled:

“My job was to try and look at the capacity of Algonquin Park to camp in the interior and what that required was a field examination of all the lakes on all the canoe routes ... So I have been around the shoreline of every island of every lake that’s on a canoe route ... We didn’t like campsites at portage entrances because it caused too much congestion ... We were going to have designated sites and we wanted an idea of the capacity.”

In September 1969, the Ontario government set out to produce a revised and improved Master Plan under the guidance and leadership of former Premier of Ontario Leslie Frost.

An objective of recreation management was also “to provide high quality recreational experiences in a natural setting to an optimum number of visitors and to control use to maintain and enhance the ... primitive character of the area.” To limit and more equitably distribute the impact of canoe trippers on the environment a quota system was introduced in 1976.

In 2012, Calvert said it was recognized by government that while some areas would exclude logging, others would include that necessary economic activity. As he had written in 1972:

“The special role that Algonquin must have within the social and economic fabric of the regional community has been identified ... Algonquin will continue to contribute to resource production activities in the region.

“However, the nature and amount of this contribution will depend upon the extent to which diversification of the economic base provides alternatives for the maintenance of the local communities.”

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It is very much to Bill Calvert that we owe thanks for what specific parts of Algonquin Park are set aside from other activities to this day, as “wilderness.” In 1969 he wrote, “The ‘true’ value of the Park lies in the aesthetic, inspirational, and biological aspects of the wilderness environment.”

As chief architect of the Master Plan, Calvert personally pored over maps to delineate each area to be protected. When interviewed, he recalled: “You just wanted to do a good job on behalf of the Park. You had a window of opportunity to be one of the lead stewards in a fantastic place ... Algonquin Park is the, to my mind, the most accessible and finest wilderness area in eastern North America ... It’s because of the accessibility of the Park,” compared with the mountain parks that require special skills for travelling. “You think of the vast numbers of people in eastern North America ... this is it!”

Calvert commented about one of his toughest decisions:

“Probably when it came down at the end of the day [it was] sort of drawing the lines on the wilderness zones, or then primitive zones. Now I thought, ‘I’m protecting this lake, and this lake isn’t.’ That bothered me a bit. You sort of make the decision, ‘Well, am I going to make the decision and sell it and if I don’t, somebody else is, and if I know somebody that’s better qualified, go and ask them now’ ... It wasn’t that difficult but it gave me more pause than anything else.”

In the end, there was nobody else with as much experience in the Park to make those determinations. Calvert’s painstaking decision-making resulted in the wilderness zones that can be seen by all, laid out on the official Park map produced by The Friends of Algonquin Park.

Calvert hoped his lasting legacy will be that areas of Algonquin Park will continue in their natural state as wilderness. He said, “Whatever you protected here in the hope that it will continue ... if you were able to look forward a hundred years, what’s still going to be in place, it’s likely to be the zoning and what you protected.”

When interviewed in 2014, former Park

Superintendent John Winters said:

“If you go back to the 1974 Master Plan, in its era and even to this day, I think it was a brilliant piece. The one thing it ... says [is] that [regarding] the interior of the Park, you are only going to get there by hiking or by canoeing. You’re going to get this wilderness experience ... I say what they wrote was truly brilliant when you look at the principles of a protected area.”

The 1998 Management Plan updated the previous Master Plan, and included in its protected areas the 25,000 hectare LavieilleDickson Wilderness Zone that had been established by the government in 1993. In 2006, the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act echoed a decades-earlier call to return parks to their natural state as much as possible, emphasizing the role of “ecological integrity.” In 2011, a memorandum of understanding adopting the Leave No Trace program was signed by The Friends of Algonquin Park, Ontario Parks, and an organized group of backcountry recreationists.

In 2013, after six years of discussion by the Algonquin Forestry Authority, the Algonquins of Ontario, Ontario Parks, and other stakeholders, “A Joint Proposal for Lightening the Ecological Footprint of Logging in Algonquin Park” was added as an amendment to the Management Plan. Wilderness Zones were increased from 11.9 per cent to 13.7 per cent, Nature Reserve Zones were increased from 5.8 per cent to 6.8 per cent, and Natural Environment Zones were increased from 1.8 per cent to 10.9 per cent, with a corresponding decrease in the Recreation/Utilization zone, in which logging could take place, from 77.9 per cent to 65.3 per cent.

Although logging still plays a role in the Park, the wilderness-like zones, with their sense of wildness, have gained much ground since zoning was first proposed. Now, under the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, the managers and staff of Ontario Parks continue to work at saving the Algonquin Park back country’s sense of wilderness for future generations.

Bill Calvert helped make official the tradition of keeping the interior of Algonquin Park wild. He was a family man, well-respected for his many accomplishments and leadership in provincial and municipal government service. As a volunteer, he was the lead instigator in spearheading the formation of the Friends of Algonquin Park non-profit charitable organization, before its inception in 1983. One of Bill’s favourite sayings was “move the yardsticks,” and he was extremely adept in doing just that as the first Chairman of The Friends of Algonquin Park from 1983 to 1993.

Quite sadly, Algonquin Park lost one of its most significant friends and protectors of wilderness when William C. Calvert passed away in March 2019. (This is just one of many stories about Algonquin Park to be found among the historical documents held in the Algonquin Provincial Park Archives and Collections.)

Roderick MacKay is author of books on Algonquin Park history, including Algonquin Park – A Place Like No Other: A History of Algonquin Provincial Park; Spirits of the Little Bonnechere: A History of Exploration, Logging, and Settlement, 1800 to 1920; and A Chronology of Dates and Events of Algonquin Provincial Park. All three titles are available from The Friends of Algonquin Park bookstore at the Algonquin Visitor Centre or online.