Friends of the Salmon River created information guideboards to draw attention to the beauty of our river. These roofed signs preside at three access points on the river: Lonsdale, Roblin and Cloyne. Professionally designed and locally constructed, they tell of the Salmon’s history and ecology.
The signs were created in concert with the Hastings, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Stewardship Councils, Quinte Conservation, Ontario Woodlot Association, Land O’Lakes Tourist Association, and bon eco design.
Teaching people to appreciate the natural world.
May 31, 2010 from the Belleville Intelligencer –
Paddlers came ashore in Roblin on Saturday at a ceremony held by the Friends of the Salmon River. The conservation-minded Friends unveiled two guideboards: one in Roblin, the other in Lonsdale. A third will be erected near Cloyne on July 3.
Learning to love the Salmon River got a little easier Saturday.
The Friends of the Salmon River unveiled two guideboards along the waterway. “If the people love the watershed you really don’t need a lot of hard-nosed regulation,” said Gray Merriam, a retired professor and ecological researcher, now president of the Friends.
Signs were unveiled in two places: in Lonsdale at the Marysville Road bridge over the river and at the Roblin boat launch just off Highway 41 in the hamlet’s south end. Each contains geographic, ecological and historical information about that particular area of the watershed.
Merriam said the signs match the Friends’ main goal: teaching people to appreciate their natural world so they will preserve it.
“We believe that’s the strongest conservation measure anyone can take,” Merriam said.
“It’s actually a pretty healthy river and we’d like to keep it that way,” said Susan Moore, the group’s publicity director. “If we all take care of our little piece of it and tread lightly on all of it we’ll have a wonderful Salmon River for many generations to come,” said Moore.
“It’s possible to provide good stewardship to a place that doesn’t have a lot of problems and it’s a hell of a lot easier to fix if you start there,” Merriam said.
The signs were created in concert with local businesses, the Hastings, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Stewardship Councils, Quinte Conservation and others.
Dignitaries from those groups as well as area politicians praised the Friends’ efforts to conserve the area and inform the public.
A third sign will be unveiled July 3 at the crossing of Regional Road 506 over Story Lake south of Cloyne.
The organization is trying to increase the availability of the area’s natural history to people using the watershed and last spring held several trial wildflower walks, something Merriam said may be expanded.
About 75 people attended the Lonsdale unveiling. A few dozen were present in Roblin; several of them paddled canoes ashore for the ceremony.
“The biggest help we can have is for ordinary people to become members and those members to get their concerns to us,” said Merriam. “Even if they live in the bottom end they should have an interest in the top end. That’s where your water comes from,” he added.
Luke Hendry, The Intelligencer
lhendry@intelligencer.ca
About the Salmon River
The river begins north of Cloyne in Lennox and Addington County and empties into the Bay of Quinte at Shannonville, east of Belleville, in Hastings County.
- Length: 148 km
- Total area: 2,703 hectares
- Watershed area: 921 square km
- Forested area: 25,052 hectares
- Agriculture area: 22,396 hectares
- Lake area: 2,981 hectares
- Named lakes: 59
Source: Friends of the Salmon River