Niagara Escarpment | REEL History

[Applause] [Music] the niagara escarpment one of nature's great masterpieces as the backbone of southern ontario home to millions of people it's a natural playground for millions more it began to take shape 450 million years ago by natural forces and now humans continue to shape the land and as a unesco world biosphere reserve it's an astonishing natural area that hangs in the balance of its mighty past and a delicate future [Music] besides the great lakes the niagara escarpment is by far the most prominent topographic feature of southern ontario winding and twisting for over a thousand kilometers through canada and the united states [Music] from niagara falls the escarpment runs westward along the shore of lake ontario to hamilton [Music] where it turns north towards lake huron [Music] from the blue mountains the escarpment winds west towards owen sound and then northward to tobermory the escarpment then dips under the water at tobermory until it rises up at manitoulin island disappearing and then reappearing west of lake michigan and finally trailing off through wisconsin and illinois [Music] the escarpment was formed by the erosion of layers of rock that took place over millions of years these rocks were formed by layers of sand clay and organic matter that have formed distinct layers that make up the escarpment the bottom layer the queenston shale started to form about 450 million years ago as an iron-rich muddy delta covered in a warm shallow sea as the sea began to rise about 425 million years ago a deeper ocean emerged where plant and animal life thrived the calcium-rich remains of these organisms created new layers of rock such as the sandstone shale and limestone that make up the softer middle layers of the escarpment as the deep sea began to retreat the magnesium-rich water reacted with the limestone layers and another layer was formed this is dollar stone the distinct hard cap rock of the niagara escarpment called the logport amible formation as the soft shale layers underneath the dollar stone were carved away by erosion the cap rock broke off in places creating the spectacular cliffs and vertical faces along the niagara escarpment [Music] caves and crevices have been created by the powerful forces of water and time [Music] it was the last ice age that caused the most recent geological events on the niagara escarpment as recently as 12 000 years ago the erosion from ice and water shaped the land such as the u-shaped beaver valley very few places in the world have an escarpment uh it uh if i go to particularly the beaver valley uh what's important is it's a re-entrant valley the escarpment goes on both sides which provides all the water the life support system to the beaver valley for fishing wildlife it also is important because again essential this is the maintenance of a continuous natural corridor so that wildlife can move back and forth uninterrupted and that's crucial to environmental planning is it's a continuous corridor and that we don't have it all cut up into little islands [Music] the escarpment's rich biodiversity is supported by a wide range of habitats like bogs meadows sandy beaches and rocky shores but the escarpment is perhaps best known for its vast forests most of the niagara's garden is in the great lakes forest region the niagara escarpment is biologically rich supporting 49 mammal species [Music] 325 bird species 98 butterfly species and over a thousand species of vascular plants [Music] the position of the escarpment in georgian bay creates an ideal microclimate for agriculture bringing warmer temperatures ideal for growing fruits such as apples and grapes the natural buffers we have that's why it's critical that we save this the land here and and that the escarpment very much tries to ensure the protection of agricultural land being in the forest and connecting with nature and the trees the trees tell a story the land tells a story and it's a really powerful area that we live in of connection and sometimes i think that in the day and age that we're living in right now living lives of being untethered you know where do we really belong what draws us here what you know what is that peace that grounds us in that creates that connection in that circle the escarpment means that connection that wholeness i remember being so excited and feeling such a connection every time we would get to the top of that hill and from the top of that hill it was like the whole world opened up [Music] you know some of the stories were that you know right now here in the escarpment this is um what we consider treaty 18 treaty 18. it encompasses everything here in collingwood you know down over to west um grand valley wasaga beach all the way over to meford and thornberry and owen sound this is unseated land that was claimed many many years ago and this was the land where the wendell people lived the huron people lived many peoples lived here many indigenous people but anesthetic people lived here we all lived here and coexisted within those circles we preserved the land we respect the land we respected the animals we you know literally abided by the culture and the ways of ebbing and flowing as one cycle one circle and so when the fur trade came about and colonization began to happen it really truly uprooted and disconnected you know we lost that piece that circle that circle became totally jarred and we were we didn't we didn't know how to deal with that so you know we reacted in ways um of uh you know trying to claw back and and get back what we had but it just didn't happen um as history tells its stories so you know for the window here on in the unashamed people that lived here all of a sudden life in the world changed so there's a lot of power and passion and tears and joy um and pain and you know what we're coming back together to become whole again to fix that time when we became disjointed and broken because of others and and there's power in the voice there's power in the storytelling and there's power in the knowledge and knowing that yes we were rooted and grounded and firmly planted here [Music] so the escarpment plan that was passed in 1973 uh an environmental plan to protect the entire escarpment from niagara falls up to tobermory and it was cutting-edge legislation at the time and uh i don't believe in any government ever since or even the future would probably pass such bold environmental legislation the escarpment plan really had two components there was the act and the acts said and this is the key component of the act that the escarpment should be maintained is a continuous natural and corridor that's central to the plant a continuous natural corridor and that any kind of development should be compatible with that concept in principle and in 1995 the escarpment plan was approved by all three provincial parties [Music] so about 60 years ago there were a group of people who were naturalists or had an interest in nature generally around the hamilton area and they had already on their own scouted out walking along the escarpment and then kind of got together and said hey wouldn't it be a neat idea if we created a trail all the way up to the top of tobermory so what ended up happening is that they made a kind of a committee of people and set up meetings in towns all the way along the way to to help get the local populations to be interested in the project and it took some time to be able to put together a whole continuous trail but you know 50 plus years ago it started and the work is still in progress but today everybody can walk all 900 kilometers of the bruce trail [Music] the white dashes show you the way on the main trail of the bruce trail so the idea is that pretty well at all times you should be able to look ahead and see where the next white dash is white dash is to make sure that you're following along and like i sometimes say to people you could just go all the way to tobermory if you just keep following along here and then we also have blue dashes which represent the side trails i'd be like listen there's messages you can hear you can hear it in the trees whenever the wind is blowing you can feel it as you walk through the pathways through the trails and become one with everything that's around you [Music] i think the great thing about the bruce trail is that was submerged in educational programs about the importance of protecting habitat of the importance of protecting the escarpment it gives people you know obviously a chance to hike and for good health i think i'm also impressed by their land stewardship program the bruce trail conservancy is first and foremost a land trust so yes it's wonderful to be able to walk along on that footpath but one of the things that we do is we conserve land so people who make donations towards the bruce trail conservancy we're able to purchase and in perpetuity save land for natural purposes that can be used by you and i for all ways maintaining that quick in terms of even from economic development and tourist attraction uh i think that uh what we've seen is the the importance of the escarpment for passive recreation uh we see uh tracks hikers from around the world so it brings economic development to and of course they become because it's been protected and you don't see a massive condominium development or disruption of the natural corridor there's so much to give here in this area there's so much in these lands there's so much healing if you're open to looking for it and you're ready to embrace it the escarpment means to me that uh well it's uh it's an incredible world asset a lot of people about a million people a year use the bruce trail a world biosphere it's incredibly uh important for all of us to protect one and a half thousand volunteers who do the work of the boots on the ground the mining and forest industries and developers wanted to weaken the plan but we were able to make sure that the plans stayed in place it's really truly important for each and every one of us to respect the land that we're on to teach our children what came about why this is so precious what the story was what the underlying current was for all these people that have lived here and inhabited this world this land and we have a duty and a responsibility to ensure that those continuous natural corridors are not undermined or harmed [Music] let's live place stay honor respect and connect and tell the stories because the stories are ripe with heritage [Music] you

Channel: The Blue Mountains Public Library

Views: 16,219

Keywords: escarpment, Niagara Escarpment, geology, Georgian Bay, wildlife, nature, conservation, animals, plants, water, forest

Id: 5V5DIgF2yag

Length: 18min 12sec (1092 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021