Discover Ontario's history as told through its plaques
2004 - Now in our 15th Year - 2019
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First Forestry Station 1908
Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted August, 2004
Photo by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted November, 2010
Photo from Google Street View ©2010 Google - Posted October, 2010
Plaque Location
The County of Norfolk
At the Forestry Station just off Road 24
just west of Road 16, 25.7 km
west of Port Dover via Roads 6 and 24
Coordinates: N 42 41.781 W 80 26.659 |
Plaque Text
Here, on 40 ha of wind-eroded sandy land, the Ontario government established Canada's first provincial forestry station. That father of reforestation in Ontario, Edmund John Zavitz, was born July 9, 1875, graduated from McMaster, Yale and the University of Michigan and taught forestry at the Ontario Agricultural College. He entered this province's public service in 1905, was Deputy Minister of the Department of Lands and Forests 1925-34 and served thereafter as Chief Forester until his retirement 1953. Through his leadership, large areas of waste land have been restored to productivity.
Related Ontario plaques
McMaster University 1887
Ontario Agricultural College
More
Assorted Places
Here are the visitors' comments for this page.
> Posted September 23, 2011
The plaque at St. Williams is part of a wonderful shrine to the history of conservation in Ontario. The lands around it which now appear to be a healthy old growth forest were planted under the supervision of Edmund Zavitz, then a Lecturer at the Ontario Agricultural College, in 1908. This was a major step in his lifelong effort which ended in 1968, to rescue the province from the ravages of spreading deserts, uncontrolled fires and floods which were a consequence of deforestation.
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