Some of you may recall the children’s book by Richard Scarry entitled What do People Do All Day? It gave a cross-section of the many and varied daily occupations in a small town. In this new occasional series, Shelagh Barrington, Friday Evening Lead Gallery Guide, asks fellow AGO volunteers what they do when they’re not at the gallery. First up: Peter Feldman, AGO Friday Evening Gallery Guide
Peter, what occupies your time when you are not at the AGO?
I am part of a team that is planning and constructing visitor facilities for the new Rouge National Urban Park; including trails, visitor centres, interpretive planning and signage, day use areas, lookouts and camping facilities.
Where is this new park?
The park stretches from Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Rouge River (the border between Toronto and Pickering), approximately 35 km north across the 401 up into the Oak Ridges Moraine in Pickering and Uxbridge. In it you can find a rich assembly of natural, cultural and agricultural landscapes. It is home to an amazing biodiversity, some of the last remaining working farms in the Greater Toronto Area, Carolinian ecosystems, Toronto’s only campground, one of the region’s largest marshes, a beach at Lake Ontario, amazing hiking opportunities, and human history dating back over 10,000 years, including some of Canada’s oldest known Indigenous sites.
This a Federal and not a Provincial park?
Yes, it is Canada’s first National Urban Park, managed by Parks Canada, the same people who bring to you Banff National Park, the Rideau Canal, and Fort Henry National Historic Site. The park was created by an assembly of lands under federal, provincial and municipal jurisdiction, dating back to 1954 and the creation of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in the aftermath of Hurricane Hazel. As part of the federal Parks Canada system, the new park has the highest level of protection as it was officially created by an Act of (Canadian) Parliament and therefore is permanently protected against development under federal law.
Why are people living in the park?
There are many people living in Federal parks across Canada. Think of Banff and Jasper and other townsites. Part of the mandate of Rouge National Urban Park is a sustainable agriculture community. This is the main reason I came to work at this park. I grew up on a farm and feel the celebration of the importance of agriculture in Canada’s history needs to be commemorated and celebrated. And I don’t mean just farmers from Europe, but also the First Nations peoples who have been farming and living here for 10,000 years. In some ways this park is both urban, located on the edge of the Golden Horseshoe but also rural as farming will be encouraged to continue and become an integral part of the park. A vibrant agricultural community needs to have farmers living in it.
How did you get involved with Parks Canada?
Upon graduation in Art Conservation I did my internship with Parks Canada at the conservation lab in the then regional office in Cornwall.
How does historic site art conservation fit with Parks Canada?
Think of the federal, national historic sites like Fort George in Niagara on the Lake, Bethune House in Gravenhurst and even the Trent Severn historic waterway system still operating today under the administration of Parks Canada. Continuing conservation is required at all the historic location be they homes, forts, locks or monuments. Parks Canada manages over 180 national historic sites across Canada.
I am looking forward to exploring the park this summer!
– Shelagh Barrington
For more information on Rouge National Urban Park please see:
parkscanada.gc.ca/rouge Facebook: RougeNUP Twitter: @RougePark
Do you or a volunteer you know have an interesting occupation or sideline? Let us know and we can feature your story! Contact Shelagh at [email protected].