Retired Nursing PhD Releases Book on Quarry

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www.citizen.on.ca -- November 17, 2011

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Retired nursing PhD releases book on quarry
2011-11-17 / Local News By WES KELLER Freelance Reporter When Donna Wells, PhD, took early retirement from the nursing faculty at University of Toronto and moved with her economist husband Robert to the hills of Mulmur, she might not have dreamed that she would soon become dedicated to the preservation of the fascinating landscape of the Dufferin County area. Her devotion over the past several years has become such that the former nurse and academic has produced a book of 50 scenic area photos – selected from between 3,000 and 4,000 images taken from a wide area, following her photography tutoring by an awardw inning photographer. The book, Landscapes and the Proposed Mega-Quarry, is to be available at BookLore in Orangeville beginning tomorrow, or it is available online at lulu.com. The credit and/or the blame for Donna’s zeal for capturing the spirit of nature for an eternity through the art of photography belongs in large measure to husband Robert, who gave her a high-end digital SLR camera as an early retirement gift, and to some extent to The Highland Companies – as she sensed the loss of her beloved landscape if their mega-quarry were to be approved. Interviewed Monday at the Free Press and Economist in Shelburne, Donna said she has worked with, been instructed by, and deeply inspired by photographers Freeman Patterson of Shamper’s Bluff, NB, André Gallant of St. John, NB, Edward Knapp of Toronto and Hull, Quebec, and John McQuade of Miksang Contemplative Photography in Toronto. Although not coming right out and taking any kind of stand on quarry proposal, Donna has serious questions about it, and has arranged for proceeds from her book to be donated to the North Dufferin Agricultural Community Taskforce (NDACT). As well, she said she would be delivering 10 of the first copies to NDACT vice-chairman Carl Cosack as a donation.

Her position on life, Donna said, is that “we are all part of the problem, so we must all be part of the solution.” Realistically, she views a major quarry excavation as being of conflicting interests, and wonders if there is any kind of tradeoff between Ontario’s need for aggregates and a growing population’s need for farmland. The proposed quarry area has some of the best farmland in the province, and it also has the highest quality limestone. She said she interviewed a golfer at Shelburne golf club whose response was, “well, do you like roads,” he asked rhetorically. “I like good roads,” she said Monday. “But why do we need to take the best quality limestone from Ontario and give it away? Having photographed the river systems, including rugged parts of the Saugeen, Donna is disturbed about the pumping ultimately 600,000 cubic metres of water from the quarry floor and pumping it back into the system. Her concern, she said, is not only with the condition of the water that is returned, but also with whether or not it would go back into the same river systems – thus to return the rivers to their natural state, even if not as pristine. Pumping 600-million litres daily in perpetuity? She expresses “ perpetuity” in generational terms, and wonders if that becomes the fin ancial responsibility of “our children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren (and so forth).” If the pumping ceases, whether in a century or a millennium, what happens to the rivers while a 2,300-acre hole, 200 feet deep, fills? Donna says Highland has been speaking in “motherhood issues.” She is hoping, but doesn’t appear confident, that the Environmental Assessment will answer the real issues.

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