Willisville Mountain at risk

VALE INCO

Posted 15 days ago

Willisville Mountain, the subject of an Ian Tamblyn song and inspiration for a 45-artist art project in 2009, is at risk of being lost due to a new Vale Inco aggregate quarry and crusher operation, according to a member of the La Cloche Mountains Preservation Society.

“It was a big wakeup call for us: we were not even aware of Licence 20568,” said Jon Butler, Willisville resident and president of the Sudbury Condominium Corporation No. 5 board, the elected governing body of the Village of Willisville. “I was surprised to find out the licence extended from the present Lawson Quarry all the way to Lang Lake and includes Willisville Mountain.”

The Village of Willisville, which has a population of about 55, is located on Highway 6 between Espanola and Little Current. Willisville Mountain is situated in the heart of the La Cloche Mountains — an almost two billion-year-old mountain range.

Forty-five artists came together in 2009 to create the Willisville Mountain Project, an art project dealing with the four seasons. An exhibit opened in Willisville in July 2009 and will travel until August 2010.

The new quarry will be developed in a forested area between the existing Lawson Quarry operated by Vale Inco and Willisville Road on the west end of Frood Lake.

Butler is part of a local volunteer group that looks after a pickerel-raising pond in the forested area and found out about the development by talking to a Vale Inco employee.

The new aggregate site is just 550 yards from the community of Willisville, added Butler.

Butler, who accidentally learned of the new development while visiting the pickerel pond May 14, said through speaking with Vale Inco’s Kyle Holford on Thursday, the company decided to halt excavation of the aggregate pit adjacent to the pickerel pond and will get back to residents next week.

Vale Inco spokesman Steve Ball declined to comment on the new aggregate quarry and crusher operation in Willisville Friday.

“Right now, I do not have sufficient information to make a comment today,” he said. “The person covering the project (Holford) is on vacation until next week.”

On Monday, the Sudbury Condominium Corporation No. 5 board met and sent a motion to Vale Inco asking the expansion work be stopped “until such time as there is an opportunity for public input, or some form of information session and an environmental study on the impact on the Willisville area.”

Butler also said that on Monday he visited the Ministry of Natural Resources office in Espanola to check the aggregate licence Vale Inco holds for the new operation and learned the licence was grandfathered in 1998 and a new site plan was registered in 2001. But, he said, no environmental study was done or public forums required and no timelines were required on the site plan or licence.

Butler said Willisville Mountain, which was once home to a fire tower and was the scene of filming with the television seriesAdventures in Rainbow Country,is the highest point in the area and draws lots of hikers annually who come for the spectacular view. Willisville Mountain is also associated with many Group of Seven painters, such as A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson and Franklin Carmichael, he said.

“We are not against development,” said Butler. “There has to be mining in Northern Ontario, but there must be somewhere else available, an alternative to this … We consider it of historical significance, just by the art history alone. And it’s right beside Highway 6.”

One of the Group of Seven paintings in the permanent collection at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinberg, noted Butler, is A.J. Casson’sFrom Willisville Mountain.The painting will be featured as part of the In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven exhibition, which opens today at the gallery.

hcarmichael@thesudburystar.com

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