The PenOpticon

Now that the moving vans have arrived to plunder the Dunlap Observatory, I'm reprising my original letter sent to U of T's Governing Council.  Recall, that U of T never once allowed anyone opposed to the sale to address the governing council. Remember that the university never once consulted with area residents over their plans. I briefly met a U of T librarian on the property this morning, but apart from her, the only official U of T representative I have seen in Richmond Hill since Oct 30, 2007 was a Cassels Brock lawyer at a Town Council meeting.

From Oct 30, 2007 Open letter to the Governing Council of the University of Toronto: 

This afternoon, the University of Toronto Governing Council will meet to decide the fate of the David Dunlap Observatory and its adjoining 189 acres of forests and meadows. This will be no ordinary meeting, and, if U of T's governing body decides to sell, it will be no ordinary sale. 

If these lands are permitted to be sold off and turned into houses and big box stores, it will require the consent and collusion of U of T’s governing council, the Town of Richmond Hill and the province.  In other words, the destruction of DDO forests and meadows will proceed only if the University declares the property to be surplus land, the Town of Richmond Hill council rezones it from institutional to residential/commercial, and the province (through Ontario Municipal Board hearings, if not ministerial intervention) allows bulldozers to begin scraping away the topsoil and trees. 

If these three entities collude to ensure the destruction of the largest remaining green space in the heart of Richmond Hill, it will demonstrate once and for all that our society has no interest in building sustainable communities or fixing the environmental mess we have gotten ourselves into.  It will show that despite the pretty words in a thousand press releases, no one really believes green space is important for the well-being of people and wildlife. 

After all, if one of Canada’s leading universities – an institution responsible for teaching conservation and sustainable development practices and for researching the social and environmental aspects of natural green space – is willing to sell the DDO to the highest bidder, what can we expect from rest of society? 

In fact, the sale of this land will undo much of the University’s institutional effort to become sustainable and environmentally sound.  The University of Toronto demonstrated leadership by opening a Sustainability Office in 2004.  Since then, it has launched numerous greening initiatives – from the LEED-certified Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre in Mississauga to extensive tree planting and naturalization projects on the St George campus. In an article on the University’s “Open Space Plan”, Mary Alice Thring writes “Trees are so integral to U of T that they appear in its crest and are invoked in its motto: Velut Arbor Aevo, which translates as ‘As a tree with the passage of time.’” She adds, “Trees are such a focus of all phases of the Open Space Plan that the landscape architects describe transforming the campus into an ‘urban forest’” (U of T Magazine, Spring 2004). 

Clearly, when it comes to its Toronto and Mississauga campuses, U of T’s administration understands the relationship between the environment and the health and well-being of people and all living things. 

But, will the greening of U of T’s 160-acre downtown campus mean anything if that institution sells off 189-acres of healthy forest and meadow lands in order to pay for future expansion projects? When the Dunlap property became part of the University in 1935, it was cultivated farmland. After seventy years of U of T’s stewardship, this land has been regenerated. It is now a crown of forest cover in the midst of Richmond Hill and a quiet haven for dozens of species of birds, deer, walkers – and astronomers. 

If the University proceeds with this sale, it will be in spite of the broad and deep environmental expertise of its own academics. A quick scan through the U of T undergraduate catalog turns up dozens of courses on the environment, forest ecology, conservation biology and other topics.  Dr. Mart Gross, for example, teaches courses which focus on “biodiversity; endangerment; habitat loss and fragmentation” as well as “moral philosophies, and political, economic and social justice issues surrounding biodiversity”.  In fact, U of T is home to Canada’s oldest forestry program and celebrated that Faculty’s centennial this month by hosting an international Congress to develop a “comprehensive Global Vision of Forestry in the 21^st Century”. 

What kind of “vision” will the sale and destruction of a major urban forest provide for the residents of Richmond Hill and their children? 

Given the repeated warnings of coming climate change and environmental degradation from UN panels such as the IPCC; given the fact that southern Ontario – and much of North America – is in the midst of a multi-year drought; given that Great Lakes water levels are at all-time lows and central plains aquifers are being depleted; given that our electrical grid has been pushed to the limit while geologists tell us that Peak Oil will occur – or has occurred – within our lifetime; we must ask whether now is the time to diminish our environment further by destroying the David Dunlap Observatory lands. 

Again, I would draw attention to the Spring 2004 edition of U of T Magazine: “People need trees, and lots of them. Each year, Toronto’s trees absorb roughly 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of the output of thousands of cars. They also absorb about 1,500 tons of other pollutants, such as smog-causing nitrogen oxides. Not only do we need trees to maintain our health, we need them to nourish our souls.” 

Alumni and friends of the University of Toronto have responded generously to the University’s desire for trees.  By taking “minimum” donations of $750 per seedling, the University has planted hundreds of new trees on its downtown campus.  To celebrate U of T’s 175^th anniversary, for example, F. Ross and Susan L. Johnson made a gift of  175 trees and perennials along King’s College Road and the Sir Daniel Wilson and Knox College walkways.  Are not such wonderful gifts diminished if the University forges ahead with sale and destruction of the DDO property – a thriving urban forest that is considerably larger than the St. George campus? 

Over many decades, thousands of Richmond Hill students have paid millions of dollars in tuition fees to attend the University of Toronto. To this day, these students graduate with deep technical and critical thinking skills and a desire to build rich lives and communities. After 70years, it is unthinkable that the University would threaten the health of a vibrant community by removing the 189-acre heart that sits in the middle of it.

The fact that these healthy forests and meadows can be sold off for millions of dollars with out regard for, or consultation with, the people who live next to it is emblematic of many of our current social and environmental problems. The ability to speculate, to buy and sell remote tracts of land, mineral rights, water resources and currencies while remaining disconnected — or willfully ignorant of local consequences — explains a great deal about how we have moved close to the brink of our own destruction.

I do not see how the U of T Governing Council, the Town of Richmond Council and the Province can support the sale of David Dunlap Observatory.  There is time.  And the University should use it.

Sincerely,

Rod Potter

Member of the Richmond Hill Naturalists Executive and long-time Richmond Hill Resident