9.0 Historical Changes in the Land-Use and Wetland Availability in Old Norfolk County

9.1 Land cover and land-use change in old Norfolk County

9.1.2 Pre-settlement to the tobacco era

Over a period of several thousand years prior to European settlement, numerous tribes of native North Americans lived in the old Norfolk area. The two most recent tribes, the Neutrals and the Mississaugas, relied heavily on the bountiful natural resources of the area, but also grew corn, tobacco, squash, and beans (Chanaysk 1970; Barrett 1977). Europeans first arrived in the region in the 1600s, and in 1784, the British Government purchased land from the Mississauga Tribe. John Graves Simcoe declared the old Norfolk County area a settlement around 1790, and with the end of the American Revolutionary War, there was an influx of persecuted United Empire Loyalists crossing the border to settle in the area encompassing old Norfolk County. These events were ultimately responsible for the clearing of the old Norfolk soil. The area experienced rapid growth over the next twenty years, aided and encouraged by generous land grants. By the time that the War of 1812 broke out, there were 3,000 settlers living in the old Norfolk area (Pearce 1967).

Norfolk was almost completely covered by the Carolinian Forest when settlers first arrived. Consequently, lumbering became the chief industry, with the majority of the logs to be exported being transported to the Inner Bay and Lake Erie via Big Creek. Saw mills, schools, churches and communities began to be constructed throughout old Norfolk. Logging intensified by the 1840s and peaked between 1860 and 1880 (Francis et al. 1985). Large stands of pine and oak were cut to build ships for the Royal Navy as well as for export and local use. By 1850, Port Royal, Port Rowan, and Port Dover were important ports for timber export (Zavitz 1963). Trees were also cut to fuel industrial activities such as iron production at Normandale (Beazley and Nelson 1993). Harvest of timber was so quick that by 1880 local wood demand could not be satisfied, and by 1900 lumbering and agricultural clearing had reduced the forest cover of the Big Creek watershed to 11% (Wilcox 1993; Beazley and Nelson 1993). With railway construction complete in 1888, and providing access to cities and large markets, the exploitation of trees further intensified, and demand was so high that even river valleys, swamps and the Long Point spit were being logged. This represents the quickest and most significant land cover change ever to occur in old Norfolk County (Beazley and Nelson 1993). Given the erodability of Long Point's sands, it is quite fortunate that the Long Point Company purchased the spit in 1866 and restricted all forms of commercial logging.

The eventual lack of trees available for logging during the late 1800s, and the ready availability of cleared land, productive soils and favorable climate resulted in mixed agriculture replacing lumbering as the primary industry; the main crops were wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, oats, peas, corn, and fruits, while livestock grazing was also prevalent (Blake 1963). Wheat was the most commonly produced crop until the 1880s, when competition from western wheat growers caused many farmers to switch to barley (Wilcox 1993). By the turn of the century, barley was replaced by corn and oats as the most prevalent crops produced. Interestingly, the Long Point and Turkey Point marshes were used extensively for grazing and as sources of hay for cattle during these early settlement times (Wilcox 1993).

By the early 1900s, overzealous logging and intensive agricultural practices resulted in extensive loss of vegetative cover. With the soils being primarily composed of sand, wind and water erosion ensued, resulting in the depletion of soils and the area becoming a "virtual desert" (Barrett 1981). Many farms were sold and abandoned, and the general feeling was that the region was useless for anything except reforestation (Zavitz 1963; Phipps 1983). Quite fortunately, the Province of Ontario's Department of Lands and Forests opened Ontario's first forestry station on the 100-acre Waterbury farm near St. Williams in 1908 (Pearce 1973). This marked a significant turning point for old Norfolk County, as denuded areas were reforested and the trend towards unsustainable land use activities was reversed. Today, old Norfolk County boasts a higher percentage of forest (18-25%) than most other counties within Carolinian Canada. Although the susceptibility of old Norfolk sands to wind and water erosion promotes the retention of current levels of forest cover (Gartshore et al. 1987), residential lots are continually being developed in forested areas and this is probably increasing the level of forest fragmentation throughout the region.