There was a definite air of congeniality in the Niagara College conference room among about 70 attendees and participants in last Friday’s Niagara Geopark Trails Summit.
Even more so there was a sense of excitement at seeing all the stakeholders from various organizations, businesses and governments from across Niagara together in one room.
They were at the Daniel J. Patterson campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a day-long event designed to get everyone on the same page when it comes to this fall’s application to designate the region as a UNESCO Geopark.
It’s a quest begun by geographer Darren Platakis back in 2017, when he first came up with the idea. Platakis, the founder and chair of the Aspiring Niagara Geopark’s education outreach working group, along with board chair Perry Hartwick and special projects coordinator Ian Lucas, organized and hosted Friday’s gathering, which was emceed by former St. Catharines mayor Walter Sendzik.
On the surface the meeting was focused on the many trails that snake through the region. But it was much more than a group of environmentalists and stewards of the land sharing their love of nature.
It was about the impact of working together on the UNESCO application, and the impact that can potentially have on local tourism and Niagara’s economy as a whole.
Looking around the room it was easy to recognize representatives from Greenbelt Ontario, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, the Niagara Parks Commission and the Bruce Trail Conservancy. There were also professors from Brock University and Niagara College, principals from businesses such as Walker Industries and Arterra Wines, and councillors from many of the region’s 12 municipalities.
After kicking off the day with some welcoming words from the geopark’s Indigenous culture liaison Phil Davis, Brock geography and tourism studies professor Dr. David Brown was the first to speak to the crowd.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake resident made comparisons of Friday’s event to a November 1992 meeting called the Niagara Greenways Trails Summit that he participated in.
“We had over a hundred people crammed into the Brock Senate room that day,” Brown recalled. “We formed a group called the Niagara Greenways Network. It was the first systematic attempt to consolidate all the things we knew about the trails in Niagara and put it all in one book at the time.”
To Brown and others who spoke and participated in panels, the time is now to link all of the region’s beautiful geography together to earn recognition from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Keynote speaker Brooke Henry of the Bruce Trail Conservancy, also an ambassador with the World Trails Network, wowed the crowd when she displayed the website for Jeju Island UNESCO Geopark in Korea. The site, geopark.jeju.go.kr, is an interactive one-stop clearing house with a wealth of information about the geography of the island and the businesses that offer services there.
Panels included one led by Davis on Indigenous heritage trails, and a healthy living and visiting discussion led by Niagara Region landscape architect Julia van der Laan de Vries. NOTL Local columnist Owen Bjorgan, owner and operator of Owen’s Hiking and Adventures, led another panel on sustainable economic benefits.
After the summit wrapped up in mid-afternoon, participants and politicians gathered at the college’s Benchmark Restaurant for a reception.
“Today is an example of what’s possible,” said Niagara College president Sean Kennedy to open the reception, “when the private sector, the public sector, educational organizations and governments all come together to dream about what’s possible if we all work together.”
Regional chair Jim Bradley, Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates and Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff all declared their support for the organization’s objectives. NDP Gates, however, couldn’t resist an opportunity to take a swipe at the current provincial government’s Bill 23.
“Our environment is under attack,” said Gates. “They want to build housing on the Greenbelt. I’m not supporting that. We need to build 1.5 million homes, and we have enough land to build two million homes in Ontario. We do not have to build homes on the Greenbelt. We have to protect it. We’re the luckiest people in the world with our trails, and we have to protect them.”
Oosterhof responded with a dig of his own at Gates.
“It is very hot outside,” said the young MPP, referencing Friday’s warm temperatures, “but only half as hot as it is under Wayne’s collar.”
Hartwick, who later paid tribute to the late Keith Simmonds, whose support of the geopark project through his position at Great Wolf Lodge was instrumental in the work done by the organization the last three years, was floored with the success of the event.
In front of a scrolling backdrop of beautiful aerial images of the myriad trails and natural attractions across the region, the geologist explained the concept of a Niagara Geopark.
“At its core it’s a sustainable tourism-oriented model for our region that can help us reconnect to the planet upon which our very survival depends,” he said. “The more we learn about our place in nature, the better we will be able to understand our past and positively influence our future. That’s what this is really about, promoting a sense of pride in our region.”
The geopark push can be seen as the latest progressive effort to advance Niagara’s tourism industry, which Sendzik pointed out has been mired at 12 to 14 million visitors a year for ages.
When considered along with the recent extension of GO Train service to Niagara, last summer’s Niagara 2022 Canada Summer Games and the current efforts of grape growers and winery operators to turn Niagara into a premium wine destination, it’s clear that many believe the time has come to move the region into the next stage tourism-wise.
“I believe that going the UNESCO Geopark route is the best way to help that along,” said Hartwick. “There’s so much energy, effort and desire in the Niagara Region, and I think if some of that is tucked under this geopark umbrella that we can push forward together.”
