DOUG SKEATES graciously accepts a Lifetime Achievement award presented by Caroline Mach on behalf of the Land Stewardship Network. Contributed Photo It used to be the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) to oversee the conservation of Ontario’s natural resources, including forestry. But it was a responsibility the Ministry dropped nearly 20 years ago, preferring instead to employ single person, per given area, who has, along with other duties, to recruit volunteers as guardians of the conservation of the province’s forests, grasslands and wetlands.

Thus was born the Land Stewardship Network (LSN), a body of volunteers charged with said guardianship of Dufferin and South Simcoe.

Currently, there are 12 volunteers. Traditionally, they have been mainly landowners, who surely have vested interests in the welfare of the natural resources of the area. There are 40 such groups across Southern Ontario, all calling themselves different names. They come under the eye of Southern Stewardship Ontario, an arm of the MNR.

The LSN meets once a month at the Dufferin County Museum at Airport Road and Highway 89. Caroline Mach, who has her office at the museum, is the one who brings new people into the LSN. A forester by profession, she is chair of the LSN.

The monthly meetings concern themselves with the promotion of conservation education, focussing on specific events and projects, with regard to finding funding where needed and expertise where required. These include communities hosting tree planting bees, streams committees, a group of volunteers planting vegetation to support the grasslands around Lake Simcoe.

John Osmok, a forestry technician, is the one actual employee of the MNR connected to matters of conservation. He spends his life travelling the area and is assisted by Mike Williams, formerly with Ducks Unlimited.

The LSN presents three or four events a year as fundraisers. Usually, these are forest walks with a guide to identify tree and plant species, or mushrooms or, less frequently, wildlife. The funds raised go to assist with projects and endeavours, as needed.

They encourage wellinformed non-governmental organizations such as a group managing a forestry project of 10-acre lots, of which there are so many, attached to relatively new houses. Owners of these unused lands are encouraged to plant trees, known for being “the lungs of the world”.

Doug Skeates, retired forester and (still actively) a columnist for this paper, was given a lifetime achievement award by the Land Stewardship Network at their monthly meeting last week. Doug has been involved with the LSN for 14 years, doing his part always to promote, as he says, “basically anyone who is interested in conservation.”

One of his pet projects has been the sale of small white spruce – 2 to 3 years old – on behalf of My Sister’s Place, a transition house for women and their children in Alliston.

“The trees provide shelter and the money goes to a shelter for women in need of it as a result of domestic abuse,” as Mr. Skeates likes to explain the connection of trees as a fundraiser. “And,” he adds, “it puts more trees in the ground.”

Mr. Skeates is quick to acknowledge the donated time and effort put in by many volunteers who come to pot the tiny seedlings in the spring. Once they all went home, though, he and his wife, Anne, have sold hundreds of trees for the sake of both categories of shelter over the years.

This spring, so Mr. Skeates informed me this week, there are projects to protect local wetlands and a move to plant butternut trees which have been attacked by insects.

It is probable that a conservationist never actually retires; caring for the natural resources of this land – all lands – tends to be a part of his entire life.

Congratulations to Doug on his award.