Re: Conservationists of Frontenac Addington

Glen Pearce | Aug 05, 2015

Ron Pethick deserves a lot of credit for his work in COFA, but there were some errors in his recollection of COFA's history. The year was 1988, not 1994. The organization formed was the Federation for the Preservation of the Land O' Lakes (FPLOL), which eventually morphed into COFA. Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) needed a local cell (FPLOL) to sabotage the Madawaska Highlands Regional Trust Proposal (MHRTP). Later that year, OFAH hosted a symposium on Regional Trusts in Peterborough, which I attended. There was only one Trust which OFAH did not support - MHRTP - the one individually proposed by Ted Mosquin, who at the time just happened to be the president of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), which just happened to be the organization which, 17 years before, was instrumental in blocking an attempt by OFAH to have hunting allowed in Ontario's provincial parks. It was a chance OFAH had waited for so long, to exact revenge by quashing MHRTP, by whatever means, even though its connection to CPAWS was tenuous at best. The MHRTP was not a group, and its aim was the opposite of banning anything. Like all Regional Trusts, its aim was to garner support from all factions to enhance a region. The OFAH/COFA vendetta effectively denied this region that opportunity, and the benefits other Regional Trusts have enjoyed.