ÿþ<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>NEWS</TITLE> </HEAD> <A NAME="top"> <BODY> <A HREF="index.html"><FONT COLOR="GREEN"><B>HOME PAGE</B></FONT></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="AboutPals.html"><FONT COLOR="GREEN"><B>ABOUT PALS</B></FONT></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="President.html"><FONT COLOR="GREEN"><B>PRESIDENT'S LETTERS</B></FONT></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="Policy.html"><FONT COLOR="GREEN"><B>POLICY PAPERS</B></FONT></A> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="AboutPals.html#support"><FONT COLOR="GREEN"><B>HOW TO SUPPORT PALS</B></FONT></A><BR><BR> <A HREF="maps.html"><FONT COLOR="GREEN"><B>NIAGARA FRUIT LAND </FONT></A></B> &nbsp;&nbsp; <A HREF="mailto:pals@becon.org"><FONT COLOR="GREEN"><B>pals@becon.org</FONT></A></B>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<BR><BR><BR> <BR> <P><STRONG>PRESIDENT'S LETTER SPRING 2011</STRONG></P><BR> <IMG SRC="spring1.jpg"> <BR> <P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 0.263in; MARGIN-TOP: 0.25in; MARGIN-LEFT: -4.116in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0.005in"><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">PRESIDENT S LETTER</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P> Dear PALS Supporter,<br><p> PALS Board members and our researcher John Bacher are  fighting the good fight for fruit land and other prime agricultural lands on several fronts these days. From quarries to mega NASCAR type racetracks, to several highways, and threats of urban boundary expansions onto the fruit lands of Niagara when the Greenbelt review of 2015 takes place, we are there!</p><p> In addition, we are still diligently pursuing our 20 year- plus efforts to protect the unique and still-at-risk fruit lands  in perpetuity through the use of payments to farmers for the placement of restrictive covenants/ easements on their land. Our latest endeavor in early March, found myself, Gracia Janes, PALS researcher Dr. John Bacher, Corwin Cambray former Niagara Region Commissioner of Planning and Arnie Lepp, President of Niagara Orchard and Vineyard Co., meeting with Ontario Cabinet Minister Jim Bradley, regarding the excellent background materials Gracia had prepared to support our case i.e. Two Hundred and Nineteen Years of (fruit growing) History in photos, facts, maps, essays and quotables from 1792 to 2011.</p><p> From there, courtesy of Minister Bradley, a long time supporter of fruit land preservation, and joined by Dr. Gary Davidson, ( former land use planning advisor to Elmer Buchanan, the Minister of Agriculture at the time of our original 1992-95 Tender Fruit Land Task Force ) we headed to Toronto to meet with the Minister of Agriculture Carol Mitchell (see quotables) and present her with our colourful historical backgrounder, our case for a renewed tender fruit land program, and our rationale for the creation of a new farmer/PALS/ Regional Niagara/inter-ministerial/Task Force to develop it.</p><p> Our key messages to Minister Phillips were as follows: Niagara s very limited fruit lands are the best in North America, and they are much threatened by development despite the Greenbelt protections. Fruit farmers are aging and are increasingly under huge financial pressures, and neither their farm expertise nor the land can be replaced elsewhere. And, crucially, if the government is not prepared to save this unique part of the Provincial Greenbelt through a substantive investment in the land and the farmers, through payments for easements, we will be left not too far in the future, with a  token fruit belt having blossoms but no real farmers on the land. In fact the very success of the Greenbelt will be totally undermined, as after all, if the government cannot save the best lands in Canada what other part of the Greenbelt can they protect for farming and for feeding Ontarians?</p><p> We will keep you posted as usual! Val O Donnell, President</p> <br><a href="PALS_Newsletter SPRING 2011_setupEMAIL.pdf">To see the whole spring news letter, click here.</a> <P></P> <P></P> <br> <P> 2005 /06 BOARD OF DIRECTORS </P> <P STYLE="text-align: CENTER">Joan Ashcroft Brenda Blunt Dorothy Daley Liisa Harju Gracia Janes </P> <P STYLE="text-align: CENTER">Val O'Donnell Ranjeet Sidhu Doug Woodard Barbara Woronowicz </P> </STRONG> </B> <img src ="farm3.jpg"> <p><span style="font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif">PRESIDENT&#8217;S LETTER FALL 2011</span></p> <br> <br> <P><SPAN STYLE="font-size: 10pt"></SPAN><SPAN STYLE="font-size: 12pt">Dear PALS' Supporter,</SPAN></P> <P>Fall brings a renewed sense of urgency as your Board of Directors continues its work to educate the public regarding fruit land preservation and to prepare its case for a Niagara fruit land  easement program to present to a post-election government of Ontario.<p> As you know, since 2003, PALS has had the support of the Niagara Chair s Agricultural Task Force, (which includes PALS Board member Gracia Janes.) We now have the support of the Region s Integrated Community Planning Committee and the Regional Niagara Council to request that the Provincial Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs establish an inter-ministerial/ farm organization/ PALS/ Regional task force,  to explore enhanced tools such as easements for long term fruit land preservation. <p> An important tool for this campaign is our newly developed full-colour educational booklet , which captures 219 years of History of Fruit Growing in Niagara in quotes from such important sources as Lady Simcoe s diary description of cherries and peaches in her backyard at Fort George in 1792; Ralph Kruger s wonderful advocacy articles of the 1950s and 1980s ; an Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food report of 1991; former Regional Niagara Commissioner of Planning Corwin Cambray s 2009 letter to the Minister of Agriculture; and most recently, tender fruit farm facts from Ontario Tender Fruit Board and Ontario Grape Board Manager Adrian Huisman 2011.<p> Through comparative maps of Canada, Ontario and Niagara, the booklet also clearly lays out the very minuscule amount of this treasured land that remains after sprawling development over many years, compared with the vast acreages of prime agricultural land elsewhere. It is completed by four excellent articles by PALS researcher Dr. John Bacher showing how easements, paid for in the public good by various governments, are used to protect lands in other very special farm areas e.g. Michigan and the Oak Ridges Moraine and how they could work to bolster Ontario s Greenbelt protections.<p> Having presented our case and the Niagara Fruit Land booklet to Carol Phillips the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in March, we have sent along a copy to the Premier for his summer reading, and will be fast off the mark to present our case to whomever forms the government after election day so they may have the opportunity to lead the way in preserving the best lands in Canada for future generations of the public and farmers.<p> We will keep you posted as usual, Val O Donnell, President<BR> <a href="PALS_Newsletter FALL 2011_setup.pdf">To see the whole fall news letter, click here.</a><br> <BR> <img src="winter1.jpg"> <P><STRONG>President's Letter </STRONG> <STRONG>Winter 2012</STRONG> </P> <p><span style="font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif">Dear PALS Supporter,</span></p> As you will see from this Winter 11/12 Newsletter, our Board of Directors, and particularly our researcher John Bacher, are as usual involved with several farmland/natural area protection battles. These range from Hamilton s huge aerotropolis expansion plans onto farmlands, to Fort Erie s proposed NasCar-like raceway on over 800 acres of prime farmland and natural areas to urban expansion plans in Niagara Falls and West Lincoln. We have even helped groups who are opposing the Lincoln/West Lincoln Agricultural Society s agriculturally- related (but not compatible to farmland protection) plans to move its fairgrounds from Beamsville to farmlands outside the urban boundaries of West Lincoln.<p></p> Along with these issues, PALS must deal with the pro development/urban expansion undercurrent in our Regional Niagara government, where only a handful of Councilors are willing to vote against urban use proposals e.g. severances, and most local and regional Councilors vote against staff recommendations for land preservation. It is becoming clear that only through PALS and Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) objections to the OMB e.g. the successful protection of 600 acres of farmland and natural areas in Willoughby , NF, may developments be stopped. It is of concern though, that Province hasn t opposed the very large and extremely damaging Fort Erie race car track proposal that goes to the OMB in January. ( see press release)<p></p> Given these constant threats to important provincial resources within and just adjacent to the Greenbelt it is to be hoped that now the election is over, the Provincial government will take a broad overview of land preservation issues and act strongly to prevent ALL urban intrusions onto rare and threatened fruit lands, other prime farmlands and natural areas-both inside and outside the Greenbelt. Of particular importance to us, of course, are the irreplaceable Niagara fruit lands, where fruit farmers, while under threat of a growing urban use and expansion shadow, continue to grow healthy fruit close to large urban markets, provide thousands of jobs, protect natural areas and the fruit land base, and provide tourism opportunities on an incomparable scale - all within the most tightly encompassing restrictions within the Greenbelt.<p></p> It is our opinion, and that of others, such as experienced planner Gary Davidson, former Director of Planning in Huron County , that the best long term method to save this rare land for future generations of farmers and the public, and lessen the burden farmers carry, is to bolster the Greenbelt zoning protections through the use of payments to farmers for restrictive covenants placed on their lands. This will allow them to still own the land and sell it if they wish, but will prevent urban development  in perpetuity rather than just until a less committed government comes into power down the road.<p></p> Now that the Niagara Regional Council supports the formation of a Provincially-led, joint inter-Ministerial/ farm organizations/ PALS, Regional Niagara Task Force to explore long term methods for fruit land preservation in Niagara, we will persevere in the months ahead, to bolster our long-standing and once -realized, but then cancelled, case for easements to the government.<br> Val O Donnell, President<br><a href="PALS_Newsletter WINTER 2011_setup SmallEmail.pdf">To see the whole winter news letter, click here.</a><br> <p style="margin-bottom: 0.0691667in; margin-top: 0.0691667in"><span style="font-size: 10pt"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif"></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 18pt"><span style="font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif">QUOTABLE S</span></span></span></p> Position Paper by PALS Researcher Dr. John Bacher re the Need for Easements - 02/09/08<p><b>  Experience of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Shows Need For Agricultural Easements. </b><p>  In 1996, the American Farmland Trust recognized Lancaster County s farmland protection efforts with a national achievement award. According to Bob Wagner of the American Farmland Trust, Lancaster County is setting the pace for farmland preservation in the United States. Like Niagara is within Canada, Lancaster County is one of the most productive farming regions in the United States. Daniel notes that,  It is the leading agricultural county not only in Pennsylvania but in the entire Northeast, with over $680 million a year in farm goods sold. It is also the nation s number one non- irrigated farming country. <p><b>  Another similarity between Lancaster County and Niagara, whose populations are almost identical , is that its excellent farmland is under intense development pressure from sprawl since it lies only sixty miles west of Philadelphia, which is the fourth largest city in the United States. Every year, Daniel warns, its  suburbs creep closer. </b><p>  In the past, Lancaster county appeared to be doomed to the bulldozer. This is a situation described in the book, Garden Spot, by David J. Walbert, where he notes that,  In the early 1990s Lancaster County seemed to be hopelessly divided. On the one side businessmen and progressives insisted on the necessity and indeed the inevitably of growth...As Tom Daniels later recalled when he arrived in Lancaster in 1989, every acre seemed for sale....and yet, after 1990, the road to farmland preservation grew markedly easier...Farmers who had thought preservation a nice idea but impractical... including Larry Weaver, who had told the New Era in 1968 that farming was on the way out , had a different attitude. Walbert asks,  What made the difference? <p><b>  The answer is simple - conservation easements! These are now so desirable that there is a seven year waiting list to sell them to either the Lancaster County Preserve Board, or the Lancaster Farmland Trust, both largely funded through the State of Pennsylvania. The program Daniels stresses,  has softened opposition to agricultural zoning. </b><p> As in Niagara and its Greenbelt s permanent boundaries, in Lancaster County, easements are purchased  within the contiguous agriculture security zones to maintain a critical mass of farmland that would enable farm support businesses to thrive. Such strategic locations serve  as keystones to keep agricultural infrastructure viable. <p><b> Also, like the points system of the doomed 1994-95 Niagara Tender Fruit Lands Program, the Lancaster Farmland Trust , as its website notes,  has made preserving farms that are adjacent to or within one mile of an urban growth area a priority. By doing so, the Trust can assure that development is contained within these urban growth areas </b><p> The Amish farm in the movie  Witness is one of the preserved farms in Lancaster County protected under its easement program. When you view this drama, full of heroic efforts to overcome development pressures, you may appreciate some of the struggle PALS has been going through in the past several years to obtain a conservation easement program for Niagara. <DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><A HREF="President.html#top">TOP OF PAGE</A></DIV> </BODY> </HTML>