The Story of the Ferguson Forest Centre

Part 1: The Green Dark Forest
In these days of climate crisis, wildfires raging through forests, and concern over clear-cutting everywhere
from the Amazon to North Grenville, there’s a growing awareness of the value and necessity of healthy trees
and pure air. This municipality is blessed with two valuable assets, one at each end of the community. To the
south, there’s Limerick Forest, itself the result of reforestation after disastrous depletion of forest cover. At the
north end of North Grenville is the Ferguson Forest Centre [FFC], 1,000 acres of forest, trails, and the
Ferguson Tree Nursery, where trees are grown to service the surrounding region with healthy new growth.
This gift to the community is one that mustn’t be taken for granted. It has been in danger before, and may be
even now, and if once it is lost, it would be an incalculable catastrophe. Enough of our land has been clearcut
and paved over, and the FFC is one bright spot ameliorating the damage to our environment. The story is a
long one, with roots running “long before the white man and long before the rails”, as Gordon Lightfoot so
memorably put it, “when the green, dark forest was too silent to be real”.

Before the first settlers arrived in this territory as refugees, homeless and fleeing war and loss, the Indigenous
people had lived on and with the land. They adapted their ways to that land, hunting, fishing, trapping, and
moving their settlements with the seasons. For generations, the land had been undisturbed; then, government
surveyors had imposed their lines on the land, marking the boundaries of territory that would become private,
settled with permanent structures and farms, the borders of which would take no account of rivers and
streams and other natural features. New people would live on the land, but not with it, and, most catastrophic
and devastating of all, the newcomers would destroy the old trees, taking an actual delight in burning down
huge tracts of forest as they cleared the land for agriculture and settlement.

For the new settlers, tree burning would be seen as a form of entertainment, as well as a practical operation to
clear the land. Evening parties would be held to watch the trees burn, as though it was a gigantic fireworks
display. Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of the Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, recorded this “pleasure” in
her diary: “Perhaps you have no idea of the pleasure of walking in a burning wood, but I found it so great that I
think I shall have some woods set on fire for my evening walks.”

The Crown needed the giant pine trees to provide masts and timbers for the Royal Navy, and every patent
issued to new settlers contained the condition: “…saving and reserving to us, our heirs and successors, all
white Pine Trees that shall, or may now, or hereafter grow or be growing, on any part of the said parcel or tract
of land hereby granted as aforesaid.” This made pine a valuable commodity, and, in turn, this led to large-
scale theft of pine trees by fraudulent settlers. They would pay a downpayment on a lot, or get one free as
Loyalists, then they could strip the trees and move on.

A report on one of the lots now part of the FFC noted in 1845: “Timber – hemlock, beech & some few maple.
Timber on Hills, hemlock & some few Pine, in the vallies [sic] Tamarack, Cedar, spruce & some ash. Once
covered with pine timber, but now all gone”. Regarding another lot now part of the FFC, the report stated:
“…the lot has been run over, the timber cut, hacked and destroyed”. Given that large-scale settlement in the
area was only really getting under way after the 1830’s, this shows how much damage had been done early
on, and worse, much worse, was to come.

Large areas of forest were cut down to make room for farms and homes, but, in the process, it was discovered
that burn trees were also a source of revenue for land owners. To remove the deep roots of old growth trees,
fires were lit and they were burned to ashes – pot ash, as it is known. This was incredibly useful in everything
from fertiliser, for making lye, to acting as a raising agent in baking, like baking soda. The potash industry was
a major part of British and Canadian economies in the nineteenth century, and local farmers in this area would
barter potash for goods and clothing from local stores. One such store was in Kemptville, in the building where
O’Heaphy’s is today. The farmers usually paid their store bills in ashes, collected when clearing the land,
which the merchants made into potash, and with that paid for their goods.

Across the street from his store, on the banks of the South Branch, the store owner had a pot ashery and a
pearl ashery, and he exported the ash on the steamboats that moored at his wharf. This may have been good
for the economy, but it was disastrous for the trees, as time would show.

Part 2: Teaching Tree Lore

The clear-cutting of lands for settlement continued throughout the 19th Century, as a growing population cut
its way across the country, building farms and towns and industry. But the effects of removing the tree cover
were soon producing landscapes for which no-one was prepared. The clear-cutting of lands for settlement
continued throughout the Nineteenth Century, as a growing population cut its way across the country, building
farms and towns and industry. But the effects of removing the tree cover were soon producing landscapes for
which no-one was prepared.

The removal of the tree cover radically changed the way water was absorbed, created conditions for extensive
wildfires in the dried out conditions, and produced large areas where the underlying soil, no longer contained
by the tree roots, dried out and blew away. Desert conditions developed as blow sand covered farms,
buildings, everything in its path.
In addition to these deserts, the change in control over water flow and retention caused drought conditions for
part of the year, and flash floods for another. But it was the wildfires that caused most loss of life and property,
and we can better understand these effects when we think of the fires that have erupted over the last few
years across Canada.

Many communities were repeatedly damaged by wildfires throughout the late-Nineteenth, and into the
Twentieth Century, culminating in what is known as the Matheson fire of 1916, in which 243 people lost their
lives, and the town of Matheson was completely destroyed, while Cochrane was devastated for the third time,
with fifteen people lost.

Decisive action was needed, and the Minister for Lands, Forests and Mines, Kemptville native, G. Howard
Ferguson, called in the man who, more than anyone else, was to lead the way in developing the first real
forestry service, Edmund Zavitz. Ferguson was mainly prompted to have Zavitz draft the Forest Fire
Prevention Act of 1917 after making a very uninformed and callous remark following the Matheson disaster.
He had wondered at the great loss of life, when there had been so many lakes and rivers where he felt people
could have found safety from the fires.

This would not be the last time that Ferguson and Zavitz worked together to develop the Forest Fire Protection
Service and the reforestation program that would lead to the establishment of forestry nurseries, such as the
one named after Ferguson in Kemptville. Aside from the huge problem of tackling forest fires and the growth
of blow sand deserts across Ontario, it was also understood by Zavitz and his colleagues that the loss of
forest cover had to be reversed. Trees would be needed to replace the lost ones, and trees take time to grow.
Land would have to be set aside where saplings could be grown, and research carried out to find the right
trees for the right areas.
In 1923, the same year Ferguson became Premier of Ontario, a small tree nursery was established at the
Kemptville Agricultural School. The Report of the Forestry Department noted: “An area of two acres has been
set aside, to be enlarged as needed, on which three hundred thousand transplants were set out. These will be
used as a demonstration of tree growing for the students of the school and will be supplied to private land-
owners in the eastern part of the Province for reforesting work”. By 1925, tree production in Kemptville had
reached a stage where an extension to the nursery was being considered. The Department’s Report for that
year noted: “Trees were distributed locally from this nursery as last year, and several thousand were shipped
by rail. The growing demand for trees in this section of the province will soon necessitate the enlargement of
nursery facilities”.

The nursery had proved its worth, growing various kinds of spruce and pine, as well as a number of hard
woods. The nurseries were part of a much larger project, as reforestation, demonstration forests, forest
reserves, and the Forestry Department itself, were augmented by an increased academic research
component at the University of Toronto and other institutions, including the KAS.

The urgent need for these initiatives became abundantly clear in this region by the 1930’s, when the once-
thriving settlement in the Limerick Forest area had been reduced by settlement clear-cutting and the
overwhelming effects of blow sands to a wasteland.

Part 3: The Desert on the Doorstep

The urgent need for reforestation to prevent further erosion of farm lands following the removal of tree cover
across Ontario was fully realised by the early 1930’s. The work of Edmund Zavitz and the increasing number
of qualified Foresters had begun the process and had encouraged wider understanding of the problem blow
sands were causing to agricultural land around the province.
The tree nursery that had been established at the Kemptville Agricultural School [KAS] in 1923 had grown
considerably by the end of the decade as the need for replacement trees demanded a continual supply of
saplings for use in reforestation projects. But it was also clear from experience and research that these new
trees would only prosper if they were grown in the same climatic conditions and soil types as the land in which
they were to be planted. And, by the 1930’s, a location close to KAS became the focus of a major reforestation
initiative, as the area known as Limerick was developed into the new Limerick Forest.

The land in that part of the Municipality is not good for farming. Swampy, with thin soil that gradually got blown
away by wind and weather once the covering trees were cut down to clear the land, it was one of the last parts
of North Grenville to receive settlers. One lot, for example, had been patented to the Canada Company in
1838, but it was not until 1856 that the Company sold it. It then changed hands six times in the next ten years,
before Andrew Forsythe arrived there in 1868. He was one of the settlers after whom the various local roads
were named, and are still known, winding through a settlement that seemed to promise a stable future to the
many families that settled in the area. The Forsythe family still held it until it was taken in 1939 for arrears of
tax. Like so many other families between the World Wars, they watched the soil blow away, sand dunes
forming on some lots, as their farms became unproductive. Andrew’s son, Robert, had bought the east half of
the lot next door in 1919, and it too fell to the tax people in 1939.

The Ontario Government, under the Premiership of G. Howard Ferguson of Kemptville, had become
concerned over the deforestation of the Province when it passed the Forestry Act in 1927 to establish
agreements with municipalities on setting up reforestation schemes. The United Counties of Leeds and
Grenville appointed a Committee in 1939 to report on having a Counties Forest established in Oxford and
Augusta Townships. The landowners who were seriously in arrears on taxes, or who had actually abandoned
their farms because of the dreadful conditions, had their land confiscated, and the United Counties decided to
use these lots as the basis for the new forest.

The Limerick Forest started in 1940, and, as further lots were added over the years, grew to be the large
enterprise it is today. It was to Limerick Forest that a newly-qualified Forester named Alf Campbell was sent in
1956. Alf was to spend the rest of his career working in Limerick and later at the FFC, becoming a legend and
a precious asset to his community. Alf once told me that, when he first went to Limerick Forest, the trees only
came up to his waist. He could stand and look out over them, as far as the eye could see. 

The process of tree planting went on for decades. In 196566, for example, 177,800 trees were planted, by
hand, by twentyeight workers. The following year, these men planted more than half a million trees, again by
hand. In all, nearly nine million trees were planted in Limerick Forest on land that so many settlers had
painstakingly cleared in the late nineteenth century, thereby destroying the land they were trying to cultivate. In
1995, the Province ceased their management of the Forest and it was left undisturbed until the United
Counties took over management in 2001.

Soon after the United Counties established Limerick Forest, the provincial government initiated another
project to expand the reforestation of Ontario. In 1945, the Ministry of Lands and Forests established the G.
Howard Ferguson Forestry Station on 1,500 acres of land in Oxford-on-Rideau Township, north of the Village
of Kemptville boundary. It was the start of an institution that has provided trees in the millions ever since,
though its story has not always been one of growth. It’s a story that deserves to be remembered.

Part 4: New trees on old land

As early as 1925, it was recognised that larger tree nurseries were needed to bring about the reforestation of
devastated areas of Ontario, and the success of the Limerick Forest project in the 1930’s and early 40’s led to
the establishment of a new tree nursery on lands in Oxford-on-Rideau Township between the border of
Kemptville and the Rideau River in 1945. The land was chosen primarily because of its sandy character:
young trees could be more easily harvested without damaging the roots systems. Back in 1845, a report on
the land had noted the sandy loam soil, and this was a consideration a century later when the Ontario
Government wanted a tree nursery.

The land would not be cheap: local farmers were unwilling to sell of part of their holdings, it was all or nothing.
One parcel of land was expropriated, but there were sugar bushes and cultivated land in the other tracts and
entire farms had to be bought, even when not needed.

The G. Howard Ferguson Forest Station was established on 1,500 acres by the Ontario Department of Lands
and Forests in 1945, and was named in honour of the Kemptville native who had served as Minister of Lands
and Forests, as well as Premier of Ontario, and who had worked closely with Edmund Zavitz in promoting
reforestation and the study of forestry in the province.

Bob Mullen, a forest scientist, laid out the Station in 1945-46, dividing the land into three compartments in
which different species of trees were grown. There was an emphasis on research, as it was vital to know
which trees would be suitable for the region serviced by the Station. In those first years, the horsepower for
the work was provided by horses, and there was an experimental aspect to operations.
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Facilities were basic, to say the least. Irrigation was initially provided by an artesian well, and later a small
pump house with a single pump was built where the dock at Anniversary Park is now located. Only one
compartment could be watered at a time, and this restricted operations until the late 1950’s, when an
expanded irrigation system was put in. Things were expanding rapidly by then. A new Superintendent had
arrived who would become something of a legend at the FFC. Alf Campbell was hired in 1956, taking over an
operation that had 16 full- time employees and 300 casual seasonal workers growing around 9 million trees
annually. The main clients for the trees were the federal and Ontario governments, and large numbers of the
harvested trees went to reforestation projects. The technology was still basic, with potato harvesters being
adapted to harvest the saplings, and teams of women spending all summer pulling weeds.

Under Alf Campbell’s direction, serious analysis of irrigation and fertiliser needs for the FFC was undertaken,
bringing a more stringent scientific method to both areas. A re-evaluation of procedures was undertaken, as it
was found that the choice of species grown and sold had not been properly researched beforehand, and the
pressure to produce trees had forced the Station to continue using the same land year after year. The inability
to allow land to lie fallow for periods had resulted in a loss of soil fertility, and an alternative to expensive
fertilisers was needed.

This was found locally in what was known as the Winchester Swamp, an area of bog land lying between
Kemptville and Winchester. Thousands of dollars was spent carting the peat to the FFC by truck, in spite of
angry complaints by women in Hallville. When it dried, the top soil turned into a blackish powder which flew off
the trucks and ruined washing hanging on the lines as they passed. But it worked at replacing the soil fertility
at the Station.

In addition to the research, which was a central aspect of operations at the Station, education of young people
in the importance of forestry and trees was something Alf Campbell emphasised. From the time he first
arrived, Alf conducted school tours on a regular basis. Up to 400 children a year, mostly from Grade 5, visited
the Station and were treated to Alf’s guided tours. These tours took place as often as three times a week
during the school year, and, as Alf pointed out, the children went home and told their parents all about trees
and the importance of reforestation.

By the 1990’s, government policy regarding forest stations and tree nurseries was changing, and budgets
were being cut, retiring staff were not being replaced, and it became clear that the future of the FFC was
becoming increasingly uncertain. The arrival of the government’s Common Sense Revolution would bring
about a crisis in the story of the FFC.