Protecting the Ontario Niagara Escarpment
Environmental Activism and Goverment Stewardship
by Donald H. Avery

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Protecting the Ontario Niagara Escarpment explores the intersection of politics and conservation, business and public interests, and government and not-for-profit organizations over more than six decades to protect what is today a UNESCO World Biosphere. Reflecting on both environmental activism and government stewardship, author Donald H. Avery captures an important period in Canadian environmental history. Starting with an overview of the North American conservation movement in the 1960s and the important 1968 Gertler Niagara Escarpment Study, he examines the different work done by conservation organizations such as the Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment (CONE), statuary bodies such as the Niagara Escarpment Commission, and government departments and agencies to protect this unique landform until the present day. As part of his assessment, Avery examines the goals and strategies of competing social groups including mining interests, commercial real estate developers, landowners’ groups and environmental organizations , while providing insight into how they used the political system to achieve their specific goals. This research is based on a wealth of environmental organizational records, government documents, news articles, and interviews with Niagara Escarpment Commission staff, that demonstrates how environmental activism and government stewardship made a difference.

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Donald H. Avery, who spent thirty-five years as a history professor at Western University, has a special interest in Canadian social and environmental history. In addition to Protecting the Ontario Niagara Escarpment, Avery has authored many scholarly papers and articles as well as several books. These include Pathogens for War: Biological Weapons, Life Scientists and North American Biodefence (2013); Reluctant Host: Canada's Response to Immigrant Workers(1995); and The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology during the Second World War (1999), which was nominated for the John a. Macdonald Prize in Canadian History in 1999. Avery and his wife have lived in Collingwood, which lies along the Niagara Escarpment, for almost two decades. An avid hiker, he has travelled along and enjoyed the beauty of the escarpment and been involved with several conservation groups working to protect the area’s natural environment.

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Author

Donald H. Avery

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