Guelph Jesuits launch 500-year forest plan [ Gaia, please pick up the white courtesy phone ]

CATHOLIC REGISTER ^ | Friday, November 10, 2006 | CATHOLIC REGISTER STAFF

[Antioch]

The Jesuits in Guelph, Ont., have a plan that's only going to take them 500 years to complete.

The Jesuits are comparing their Old Growth Forest Project to such ambitious schemes as the medieval cathedrals of Europe, the pyramids and the Great Wall of China. The priests are setting aside land for a future forest — a forest that won't qualify as old growth until a handful of centuries have passed.

This forest starts with a web site, www.oldgrowthforest.ca. At the site, people are invited to donate. For every $20 gift the Jesuits will set aside a square metre of land to be protected in perpetuity. Most of the money will be used to plant just the right sort of trees so that 500 years from now the forest will be a fully functioning, old growth ecosystem. The remainder of the money will go to support the Jesuits' ecological ministries, education programs and create a legacy fund which will maintain the integrity of the forest through the centuries.

The forest is being established on 40 hectares of land next to the Guelph Lake Conservation Area. A conservation easement will protect the site in law through generations to come by restricting future land use. The Jesuits will add more land as donations continue to roll in.

So far, donors have put up $3,600 to preserve 180 square metres of future forest. The Ignatius Jesuit Centre has matched that with another 180 square metres of the land surrounding the Loyola retreat house.

The Ignatius Jesuit Centre has teamed up with the Ontario Farmland Trust and the Guelph International Resource Centre to get their old growth forest in the ground. After losing a 10-year-battle to keep Wal-Mart from putting up a store next door to the retreat centre, the Jesuits are calling this project "resurrection in action."

"I have often been consoled by the large amount of community support for our property," said Jesuit Centre director Fr. Jim Profit in a press release. "The passionate stories from people who have experienced our land and ministry have made us all the more committed to protecting it."

[Antioch]

If they had done their planting at the time of Ignatius when they had the faith and numbers, perhaps they could play forest Hobbit games today. Which brings to mind the question...If a Redwood falls in the forest and not a single Canadian Jesuit exists in the year 2506, does it make a sound? Ahh.. but better they're elbow deep in mulch than causing mischief in Rome.

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[siunevada]

For every $20 gift the Jesuits will set aside a square metre of land to be protected in perpetuity.

If the donations are lacking, will they be paving everything over?

Most of the money will be used to plant just the right sort of trees so that 500 years from now the forest will be a fully functioning, old growth ecosystem.

Uhhh. No global warming expected, right? Everything will remain static, won't it? Better bring in a psychic to tell us just what sort of vegetation we can expect around here in a couple hundred years.

The remainder of the money will go to support the Jesuits' ecological ministries

They've done it. Ecological ministries. They are beyond mockery.

After losing a 10-year-battle to keep Wal-Mart from putting up a store next door to the retreat centre, the Jesuits are calling this project "resurrection in action."

Best of both worlds. Cheap Chinese consumer products surrounded by majestic forests.