Gamiing Nature Centre Website

I had been a member of the Pigeon Lake Environmental Association for about ten years and for the last five was president. We were talking about the problems the Pigeon Lake Environmental Association Inc. was experiencing, with no one coming to the Annual General Meetings and no newcomers coming in to the board. I saw it coming that we could not sustain this much longer, but I believed that the work needed to be continued in some form.

In 1985 I had bought a 100 acre “refuse” farm along the shore of Pigeon Lake. I wanted to do something with the property to demonstrate that you can protect lakeshores in a natural way and therefore protect the water and create healthy eco-systems. I decided to convert it to an environmental education site, a nature centre, where people could come and walk trails, take in the awesome vistas and learn about our natural heritage. My personal concern for years had been the destruction of the shorelines and deterioration of the lake I love so much.

While the habitat rehabilitation was occurring, I placed the property in a land trust so that the public could enjoy the natural habitat in perpetuity, no matter who owned the property. In fact, this was the first gift to the Kawartha Heritage Conservancy, helping to launch the organization. http://www.kawarthaheritage.org/. With help from the greatest group of friends a not-for-profit organization saw the light, which became GAMIING. Now , after 15 years, at a crossroad, with a new board, full time and part time staff, Gamiing Nature Centre is establishing itself as an environmental organization that wants to share with others the beauty of living in harmony with nature.

Back to beginnings of GAMIING.

Wild ideas were offered, or maybe not so wild. We were talking about a strawbale home as a demonstration project, making interesting trails and do “something” like a nursery to grow lakeshore friendly native plants.

The Name:
We were looking for something that would depict the fact that we wanted to work and preserve lakeshores. Going through the history of the property we found that the most original population of the area was Ojibwa’s. I called an Ojibwa counsellor at Fleming College , Terry Rogers, and asked for advice. He immediately said: “GAMIING”, which literally means “at the shore”.

Since 1998 I had been walking the property with the purpose to design and layout trails, changing the course often with the change of the seasons.

Ernie Silhanik of Nature Trails Unlimited was awarded the contract in 2002 to put the trails in with a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and with help of Sandy Carrothers (Outdoor Education specialist) and myself. Currently there are over 5 trails encompassing more than 10km, a lot of it beside the waterfront. Our most recent trail was added in July, 2009. A greenhouse was also purchased and put up.

In October of 2002 we had our fist school come to GAMIING: the George Hall Public School from Little Brittain.

We have a recycled portable, which is our Discovery Shack. It is a great place for meetings, informal get-togetghers and a place where there is lots to see and experience.

The nursery is completely native. All plants which we grow can be found within a 150km radius of our location in the Kawarthas. Lakeshore visits are made each year by our lakeshore management team who provide lakeshore management and lakeshore restoration services.

So come and visit us, wander through the nursery, walk the trails, or just sit near a pond and see all the wildlife at GAMIING.The property is now sufficiently forested to allow for nature walks under tree canopy, and indigenous fauna are continually repopulating the area. Birds are coming by in increasing numbers and variety, and many are nesting on the property. We also see many local mammals, including foxes, porcupines, deer, and other animals. Of course, with our location beside the water, we regularly see many animals that spend time in the water and on land: frogs and toads are abundant, fishing birds are always on the shore or overhead, and we often see or find signs of beaver, mink, and other semi-aquatic mammals.

-Mieke Schipper
Gamiing Founder and current Volunteer Director of Fundraising

The story of the land

Kawartha’s: This is the area we live in. What does Kawartha’s stand for? It means, “land of shining waters”

GAMIING, “at the shore”, the “place where land and water meet”.

12000 years ago

We have to go very very far back to understand the land Gamiing is located on, 12000 years back. All the land was covered under a thick layer of ice. This thick layer of ice was pressing very heavy on the earth. But then it began slowly to melt and in the melting ice water were lots of sand and gravel and pebbles and rocks and even boulders. Very slowly the ice and water were moving to the North East and while that was happening it dropped the sand and gravel and rocks and because the ice was no longer pressing down on the earth, the earth came up and made hills, drumlins and eskers.

4000 years ago
The very first people we know of who inhabited this land before us (4000 years) were called the Hopewellian Moundbuilders.
They lived in the forests, near marshes and streams.
They lived in wigwams covered with animal skins and birch bark.
They made their clothes from hides and furs.
They traveled in canoes.
They hunted and fished, gathered wild fruits, roots and berries.
They wove mats and cloth from grasses.
They gathered herbs for medicine.
They were a peaceful people.

They knew HOW to live on the earth and not wear it out until there was nothing left. They were able to sustain themselves and the land without breaking it down or leaving a mess behind or using so much that there was nothing left.

These peaceful people were pushed away from here further north towards Sudbury and Sault Saint Marie.

1000 years ago – 600 years ago

The Kawartha’s became an area were people fought a lot with one another:

The Ojibwas, Huron’s and Algonquin’s were coming from the north and north west and the Iroquois came from south. They canoed and portaged to the Kawartha’s because of the rich hunting grounds which they all wanted to colonize.

400 years ago

About 400 years ago, European people came from France, England and Holland with the goal of becoming wealthy of the fur trade native peoples had established. They were deceptive and selfish. They said that the land was not worth much, so the native peoples sold the land for only a few furs and then they were pushed away unto reserves. Even today they are arguing with the governments to get their rightful lands back.

200 years ago

About 200 years ago, a man named Peter Robinson was sent by the government of England to this area. He had to divide the land up in rectangles of 100 acres or 50 hectares each. Then he sent for farmers from Scotland and Ireland and England. This land was still all forest, marsh and streams. But they came here, because they wanted to farm here. So they cut all the trees down which took a long amount of time. It had well taken them three years to clear one field. They found out very quickly that there was a lot of ruble in the soil and that the layer of soil was very thin and that no matter how many times they cleared out the rocks, they kept coming up through the soil. Eventually they figured out, that this land was not good enough to grow barley and grain and wheat and potatoes, what they used to grow in the old country and that it was only good for some pasture.

20 years ago

It is 20 years ago when Mieke Schipper's family came to the farm to live. They called it “Paradise Farms”, because they thought it was beautiful. However, the land was rather barren, unproductive and not much was growing there.When the trees were all cut and vegetation was not able to recover soil was blown into the valley causing this intense erosion.

Now there are some trees and plants and shrubs that can live on and between rubble. Mieke and her family and friends planted thousands of spruce and pine trees. The roots of these trees kept the soil in place so it stopped blowing away and under the trees other plants and grasses started to grow, plants that would die down in the fall, then rotted and that became a little bit more soil. So very slowly we are getting a forest back. And then the animals came. They found shelter on the edges of the new forests. There is now where white tail deer, foxes, coyotes, wild turkeys, grouse, pheasants and many other birds live. And the land is so happy. It gives us so much back every day.

Our location on Pigeon Lake was not always at the edge of a lake, but rather a river. Pigeon River still exists but now starts further south, near Omemee. When the locks in Bobcaygeon and Buckhorn were built, the government went to the farmers along the Pigeon River and told them that their land would be flooded. So much land along the Pigeon River was flooded that it no longer was a stream but now had become a lake. But remember, the soil that had blown in the valley, well that was now the bottom of the lake, and things started to grow there, cattails mostly and marshes started to form.

Marshes are often the best thing that can happen to a lake. Marshes work like a coffee filter. The water goes through it but it holds waste back, like the coffee grinds in the filter. The marshes are also home to many different kinds of birds and ducks and blue herons and ospreys and fish. And there are many flowers growing in the marshes.

So, that is to story of the land. I hope when you go out that you can listen to the land and learn from it.