Here’s to another 125 years

As our 125th anniversary year comes to a close, we would like to say a huge thank you for an amazing year.

Now etched into our history, here’s a few of the highlights from this exciting year.

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Rolling out the red carpet at Pinery

Today’s story comes from Alistair MacKenzie, Natural Heritage Education and Resource Management Supervisor at Pinery Provincial Park.

I started out my career saving lives.  It was a hard job. Working conditions were awful. I was constantly being asked to bend and twist to what someone else needed me to do. I was dragged through the mud and poked with sticks, even burned with hot embers.

Despite these hardships, I loved aspects of the work, but eventually I just couldn’t keep up, and they pulled me back to base to run me through some tests. Sadly, I failed, and they unceremoniously stripped me of my field approvals and cast me aside.

I thought it was all over, until they boxed me up and shipped me to Pinery Provincial Park.

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What a difference a year makes!

Today’s post comes to us from Naturalist Yvette Bree of Sandbanks Provincial Park.

Many visitors to Sandbanks may remember 2017 as the year of high water levels.  Along with many other lakes, Lake Ontario reached record highs in the spring and early summer, resulting in widespread flooding.

As a result, it definitely wasn’t “business as usual.”

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Portage partnership at Quetico Provincial Park

Today’s post comes from Chris Stromberg, Acting Backcountry Operations Specialist at Quetico Provincial Park and Coordinator for the Heart of the Continent.

This August, backcountry and wilderness ranger crews from Quetico Provincial Park and the Kawishiwi Ranger District of the Superior National Forest joined forces to maintain and improve a number of shared portages along the Canada/US border near Carp Lake and Knife Lake.

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The people I’ve met in parks…

Stroll the halls at our main office, and you’ll find many a former naturalist, ops tech and superintendent. So many of our long-time team members started their careers in a favourite provincial park. In today’s post, Eva Paleczny — now working centrally as a Learning & Education Specialist — recounts her time working in a park. 

As a park naturalist at Lake Superior Provincial Park, I met so many people, some just briefly and others year after year.

And the diverse array of visitors I’ve met while working with Ontario Parks has been one of the best parts of my job!

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A bonding family experience in the #OPescape RV

Today’s post comes to us from Paula Schuck (@inkscrblr), the writer behind Thrifty Mommas Tips, and our next #OPescape content creator to travel around Ontario’s provincial parks in our wrapped RV

A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast about the brain and nature’s impact on health, and I learned that time spent in natural surroundings impacts immune function, weight, and blood pressure as well as attention deficit disorder.

The impact of even a three day break when spent outdoors enjoying nature lasts months and leaves you in better health mentally and physically.

After learning that, I was more eager than ever to leave on our first ever RV trip (in celebration of Ontario’s Parks 125th anniversary). I needed to see for myself if it was true. Would the experience change us?

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Sparking memories with tent nostalgia

Today’s post comes from Rachel DeGreef, Project and Communications Assistant with Ontario Parks. 

We can all agree that the smell of a campfire and fresh pine can bring us back to our fondest camping memories.

Science tells us that olfactory senses are the strongest memories we have. John Leadston, Project Manager at Arrowhead Provincial Park, shares that “the smell of that canvas [tent] takes me back to a place I would return to in a heartbeat.”

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The makings and teachings of the birchbark canoe

Chuck Commanda grew up part of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, an Algonquin First Nation. As a young boy, he helped his grandparents make birchbark canoes. Now, years later, Chuck enjoys sharing his knowledge and showcasing his skills to the public.

Chuck recently attended the “Politics of the Canoe” workshop in Winnipeg, where he says much of the discussion focused on reconciliation through the canoe.

“The canoe is a shared experience that all Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can relate to. That makes it an effective tool for reconciliation.”

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Then and Now: vehicle permits

Gearing up to celebrate our 125th anniversary has us digging through archives in search of vintage photos and documents. Over the course of the year, we’ll be sharing our discoveries in our OP125 blog series.

This month, we’re taking a look back on a collection of Ontario Parks vehicle permits dating back to 1957. Purchased and displayed on the front dash of a vehicle, these permits would give people unlimited daily vehicle entry to all Ontario provincial parks.

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