Harry Smith Given Facelift

HARRY SMITH GIVEN FACELIFT
 August 02 & 04

 Visitors to the Harry Smith Conservation Area can now walk the hiking trail around the mill pond without tripping over grape vines, ground junipers and prickly ash, thanks to a partnering between Quinte Conservation and the Hastings and Prince Edward County Stewardship Rangers (OSR), based in Tweed. The Rangers devoted part of their time, July 19^th and 20^th, to rehabilitating the popular hiking trail at the Harry Smith Conservation Area, in the village of Ameliasburgh. The Stewardship Council is a volunteer group, supported by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, that works toward improved sustainability of agricultural and natural resources.

When word got out early this year that I was interested in re-opening the trail at Harry Smith Conservation Area, the Hastings and Prince Edward Land Stewardship were quick to respond, and offered the assistance of their Stewardship Ranger program. Last year, this team of 17 year olds assisted at the H.R. Frink Centre, released beetles to control purple loosestrife, did habitat mapping along the Salmon River, worked in the maple orchard at the Ameliasburgh Museum, made improvements to the walleye spawning beds at Twin Sisters Lake, repaired ice booms, and cut brush to improve habitat for the loggerhead shrike.

Arriving promptly at 9:00 a.m., the crew consisting of Josh Bird of Madoc, Kali Meeks of Marlbank, Russell Foster of Tweed, Bryan Bach of Thomasburg, and Crew Leader Maya Navrot of Frankford, jumped out of the truck armed with pruners and handsaws, and awaited their instructions. While I used a weed eater on difficult stretches and mowed through years of accumulated reed canary grass at the west end of the pond, the Rangers pruned their way along a half kilometre of overgrown trail above the pond, and remarked the trail with directional arrows. Overhanging limbs along the entrance road were also trimmed, and the entire parking area was thoroughly combed for litter.

Quinte Conservation is very grateful to those who volunteer to provide light maintenance to its conservation areas. With their help, these trails that provide the public with access to the varied wildlife habitat that exists beyond the parking lot, are able to remain in acceptable condition. Last year, a dozen volunteers cleared a four kilometre trail at Sheffield Conservation Area, south of Kaladar, and are still active today as they plan to replace a boardwalk spanning a difficult stretch of the trail across a creek. Two volunteers from Napanee, Robert and Mardell MacGarvey, have worked quietly away for more than a decade at Sheffield, and last week Robert was on hand with axe, saw and pruners to lend his assistance at the Ameliasburgh site.

The Harry Smith Conservation Area is one of almost a dozen conservation areas in the Prince Edward County watershed, owned and maintained by Quinte Conservation. While enjoying less usage than some of our other conservation areas, it is still an historically significant site, attractively located below the escarpment in Ameliasburg. It was in 1983, when Smith Quinte Enterprises of Belleville, donated this 17-acre parcel of land to Quinte Conservation, and named it in memory of Harry Smith. The conservation area includes a small pond, originally created to move logs into a log mill that was located on the property in the 1800s, near the outlet of the pond. Two permanent picnic tables are located on the grounds, and area residents have planted flowers around a commemorative plaque in the parking lot.

However, even more important, the conservation area was the original site of the historic Roblin’s Mill. Built in 1842, the imposing five-storey grist mill was powered by watered chanelled from nearby Roblin Lake. Roblin’s Mill processed wheat to be used as flour, selling it to local buyers as well as to urban markets. By 1920 the mill ceased operation and stood vacant until the 1960s. The building was dismantled piece by piece and re-erected at Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. Except for sacrificing the original grey Prince Edward limestone from which the original building was constructed, it looks much the same today as it did when it stood along the trail which now passes by its foundation remains. Today, the huge waterwheel turns again, the giant millstones convert grain to flour, and thousands of visitors annually tour a structure responsible for the early growth of Ameliasburgh. A pioneer cemetery, flagpoles, and foundation remains of former buildings along the millpond attest to this once vibrant centre.

Quinte Conservation invites the public to enjoy the newly rehabilitated trail at Harry Smith, but beware of a very friendly ruffed grouse who followed the Rangers wherever they worked along a wooded section of the trail. According to village residents, this bird apparently has been displaying this aberrant behaviour since early spring! And where are the Stewardship Rangers today? The last I heard, the four Stewardship Rangers, and their Crew Leader, were gradually pruning their way back to Tweed.