Tag Archives: The Great Lakes

Culture

The Fuss About Archaeology Conducted On Ontario Farmlands

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Farmland development throughout wind-powered Ontario has resulted in the hiring of many consulting archaeologists by developers of solar panels and wind turbine farms and the public continues to wonder why so much attention is given to archaeological sites several thousand years old that hold little or no cultural value to the people who live there today. One reason is simple to explain: developers closely follow the laws of the Ontario Heritage Act, which promotes the protection, and conservation of heritage sites before and after European Contact and therefore are bound to archaeology. The Heritage Act came into force in 1975 as a way to protect archaeological sites. Even architectural structures built over a century ago come under the protection of the Heritage act if deemed of historical significance.

This photo shows a ‘feature’- where stone flakes were recovered from a flintknapping moment about 7,000 years ago.

But other than the legal issues, what is all the fuss about these archaeological sites in Ontario rural municipalities? Well, a lot has to do with how little the public knows about the earliest people who began to inhabit the Great Lakes region over 10,000 years ago. Increased development has resulted in many archaeological sites being uncovered, which helps to answer questions such as: who were these early people? How did they survive? [Especially during a time of mammoths and glaciers CP] Where did they come from? How were they impacted by climatic changes? How long did they live on the landscape before being replaced by other groups of people? Which leads to another, penultimate question: How can these questions be answered?

Complying with the Heritage Act- solar and wind power developers are hiring more and more consultant archaeology firms to conduct studies of Ontario farmland. This picture taken on July 17, 2012 at an area East of Nanticoke, Ontario. photo: The Silo

Here is one way. Archaeologists working on a site discovered a location where an ancient person was breaking stone into smaller pieces for making stones tools. Archaeologists found a location below the ground surface where pieces of stone fell and remained for over 7,000 years. One of the first questions archaeologists tried to answer is was that person standing or sitting down at that particular location when they dropped the pieces of stone.

The best way to answer that question was to do “experimental archaeology”. In this case, stone tools left in a forest are observed to determine how natural processes move and cover artifacts over time. Some stone tools are ‘dropped’ or left while standing and others while sitting down on a log or other structure. The difference in posture and stance and the difference in the height of the drop affect the way the pieces of stone fall, land and how they orient themselves on the ground.

Click to view on I-tunes
Click to view on I-tunes

This affects the way that they are weathered, covered and deposited. After a long period of experimenting and observation, it was determined that a person likely sat on a log while making their stone tools. The broken flakes of stone, covered and protected by forest debris, resulted in a well-preserved location where someone once sat down to made stone tools.
So the next time you come across a scatter of broken stone try to imagine who sat there as they made their stone tools and what the land once looked like long ago. For the Silo, Lorenz Bruechert. /Jarrod Barker.

 

Earth

Asian Silver Carp Set To Invade Great Lakes

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The Great Lakes are one of the world’s most important natural resources – holding one fifth of the world’s fresh surface water, home to more than 150 species of fish, and vital to the economy of Ontario and neighbouring U.S. states. But several kilometres from Lake Michigan lurks a threat that could change the Great Lakes forever. The fish known as Asian carp could wipe out native fish species, devastate sport and commercial fisheries, and cause far-reaching changes to the Great Lakes ecosystem.

If you need proof of the danger to the Great Lakes, take a look at the Mississippi River Basin. After escaping from aquaculture ponds in the southern U.S. in the 1970s and 80s, Asian carp have spread steadily northward. In parts of the Mississippi and other rivers, invasive, voracious Asian carp have crowded out native fish and make up as much as 90 per cent of all fish by weight. Only electric barriers in a canal near Chicago are currently keeping the fish out of Lake Michigan.

The need for a coordinated plan to fight Asian carp led the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, with support from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, to host a “table-top exercise” in March. The exercise simulated an incident where Asian carp get into Ontario waters. The aim was to test if the agencies involved are ready to respond quickly and effectively.

“Preventing Asian carp from spreading into the Great Lakes is the most cost-effective control measure we’ll ever have,” says Ontario Minister of Natural Resources Linda Jeffrey. “This exercise was about making sure all the agencies involved work together, and identifying areas where we’re vulnerable.”

For the March exercise, participants rehearsed how they would respond IF an accident on a bridge over the Thames River in southwestern Ontario caused a truckload of live Asian carp to be dumped in and near the river. It was a timely choice – only a week earlier a fish importer had been fined $50,000 for trying to truck 1,800 kilograms of live Asian carp across the Windsor/ Detroit border to sell in the Greater Toronto Area. It’s illegal to possess live Asian carp in Ontario.

The term “Asian carp” includes four species – bighead, silver, grass and black carp. The bighead and silver carp currently pose the biggest threat. They weigh up to 45 kilograms and can grow to more than a metre long. As filter feeders that can eat 20 per cent of their body weight a day in plankton, they’re able to grow and multiply faster than native species. In some areas in the U.S. carp populations are doubling every year.

Silver carp are also a hazard to people on the water. When disturbed by boat motors, the fish jump as much as two metres out of the water. Boaters and water skiers on the Illinois River have already been hit and injured.

Canadian and U.S. experts agree that Asian carp would thrive in the Great Lakes, and that quick action is the only way to prevent Asian carp from spreading if they are found in the Great Lakes Basin.

During the table-top exercise, local MNR staff described how they would place nets upstream and downstream to catch and identify fish in the river, test the fish to find out if they could reproduce, and confirm if the river habitat was suitable for Asian carp. The agencies involved also had to decide if any local species at risk might be harmed by the control measures, and keep governments, partners, the public and the media informed.

“Ontario’s recreational fishery contributes $500 million to the province’s economy each year, our commercial fishery is worth up to $215 million a year, and the Great Lakes ecosystem is priceless,” says Minister Jeffrey. “With so much at stake, we have to be prepared.” For the Silo, Lacey Williamson.