Council Profile

Members of the Hastings County Stewardship Council are generally long term residents who have a vested interest in the land and resources of the area. As active resource users, Council members realize the economic and practical benefits to maintaining and enhancing healthy ecosystems in this region.

Our Objectives are to:

• respond to community issues and concerns relating to our natural resources.
• promote resource sustainability and a healthy ecosystem for the present and future generations.
• work to develop community partnerships to initiate natural resource based projects.
• provide a forum for discussion and investigation of issues relating to private land stewardship.

Message from the Chairman: Cliff Maclean

The activities of the Hastings Stewardship Council have continued to expand, as our 2010 annual report shows, and their success is due to a group of dedicated volunteers, both on the Council and associated as partners. The long list of activities the Council is involved with would not succeed without the significant contributions of these folks, and I would like to thank them all for their involvement.

Hastings Stewardship Council leads and supports such projects as Harvest Hastings, Community Trees seedling give-away, Trees Ontario tree planting, Wildlife Series educational programs and the Ontario Stewardship Ranger summer youth employment program.

In 2010 we added a Forest Extension Service that will offer professional expertise to woodlot owners in Hastings County,City of Belleville and City of Quinte West promoting sound forest management in partnership with local forest industry. We have also partnered with the Friends of the Salmon River and the Stewardship Councils of North Frontenac and Lennox and Addington to erect informative signs along the Salmon River at three locations to inform passers by of the history of the river and the species at risk which inhabit its environs.

I invite anyone reading this report, who is interested in the well being of our Hastings County area, to contact us to see how we might be of help to one another. Many people working together is what makes our environment healthier and helps to leave a great legacy for our children and grandchildren. Come and join us at one of our many events in 2011!

-Cliff Maclean, Chairman

Message from the Stewardship Coordinator: Jim Pedersen

Hastings County is home to tremendous diversity of farm land, forest resources, abundant wildlife and particularly innovative people. Our extensive forests, mixed farms and wilderness areas have created biodiversity that we often do not appreciate.

We are seeing significant societal shifts in how we respond to issues such as climate change and the broader acknowledgment of the absolute importance of the nature that surrounds us. We, as a stewardship Council and as individuals, work to support sustainable forest management, tree planting initiatives, best agricultural practices, wildlife education, and environmental awareness programs. We hope that our efforts with "Harvest Hastings" will help to focus attention on our agricultural community and all the natural resources that farmers produce and care for on Hastings County farms.

Our Hastings Stewardship Council of committed community members has a vested interest in promoting sustainable stewardship of our land and resources. I offer sincere thanks to those volunteers, organizations and community partners who worked closely with us in the past year.

-Jim Pedersen, Stewardship Coordinator