Springwater Park: truly a jewel

By Kate Harries AWARE News Network April 6 2012 

Springwater Park put its best foot forward as county residents turned out for an impromptu show of support today. 

“This is beautiful,” people said, breathing in the fresh air of an early-spring day, snow still in drifts under the trees, vernal pools emerging with a promise of frogs and salamanders, as we clustered in the bright sunlight to warm up.

The pines stretched tall into the blue sky and several – including guest of honour Dale Goldhawk – thought of Edmund Zavitz, the indomitable provincial forester who in 1905 saw a future here in the denuded deserts of Midhurst, and 15 years later was able to start growing that future, making Springwater Park ground zero for a province-wide reforestation effort. 

There are parks and there are parks – but this one is truly a jewel, with its streams and ponds, its unexpected vistas and varied trails.  

What a dumb move to close it down, said Goldhawk, host of a combative daily talk show on AM 740. “Pretty well as dumb a move as – I don’t know – as Site 41, as the mega-quarry.”  

Goldhawk, whose show is a province-wide forum for citizens to express their concerns about such short-sighted and mistaken government decisions, was up from Toronto to visit the protest by two Anishinabek women, Beth Brass Elson and Patricia Watts. 

“Miigwetch for coming out,” Brass Elson told the crowd of about 70 people. The park is a spiritual place, she said, and she and Watts – who both played important roles at Dump Site 41 – have been happy to connect with new people in another part of the county. 

They vow to stay in the park until Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti reverses the decision to make the park non-operational. It’s still open for use, but the gates are locked so you can’t drive in any more. This makes it hard for the elderly and disabled who have to hike in on the access road to get to the open areas where one can sit in the sun and enjoy life.

On a table in the pavilion, there were name signs for the politicians who had been invited to speak. Only one showed, Conservative Simcoe Grey MPP Jim Wilson. He did an interview with Goldhawk (tune in Monday, 11-1, you’ll probably hear it) and left. 

Barrie Conservative MP Patrick Brown and Mayor Jeff Lehman sent regrets. Among the rest of the no-show politicos were Simcoe County Warden Cal Patterson and Springwater Mayor Linda Collins, both of whom have also refused to go on Golhawk’s show, just as then warden Tony Guergis did during the long summer of  the Dump Site 41 protest. 

“We’ll get Orazietti on the radio some day,” Goldhawk promised, and “we’ll get Cal Patterson on the radio some day… And perhaps Linda Collins.”

And then people formed a circle around the drummers and the traditional songs rang out, connecting generations past to the seven generations to come. 

 

Dale Goldhawk