Holland Marsh
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The Holland Marsh is a flat intensive farming region in Ontario, Canada consisting of extremely fertile Specialty Agricultural Soil, also known as peat moss or organic soil. It is located in the floodlands of the Holland River, a waterway that flows into Lake Simcoe, located northwest of Toronto, near Bradford-West Gwillimbury, Ontario.
The first farms were market gardens, but NAFTA rules have forced many family farms out of business and the rest to amalgamate into large monoculture farms, though some smaller diverse farms still do exist. Before being converted to agricultural use, the area was primarily wetlands.
Professor William Day laid the groundwork for drainage of the wetlands in 1923 to prepare them for their current agricultural use. The marsh's length is about 15 km and its width about 4 km. The location runs from 44 to 44.15 N and from 73.8 to about 73.65 W. The Holland Marsh Drainage Canal System was created by engineer Alexander Baird of Sarnia and were completed by 1930. The remaining tiny portion of wetlands are presently to the northeast and are a protected area though are under threat by a plan to redesign the canal system. As of fall, 2006, the Oceans and Fisheries Department of Canada is expected to give clearance to move portions of the Holland Marsh Drainage Canal to create a berm between the dyke road and the canal, addressing the life safety issue of a road beside an open waterway. This will destroy any remaining wetland. The Holland River's west and east branches flow to meet the Holland Marsh Drainage Canal in the northeast, near Bridge Street. Holland Landing is located to the east. The Holland Marsh is flanked by East Gwillimbury to the east. The urban and highland rural areas of Bradford is located to the north.
The main crops of the area are vegetables which reflect each wave of immigration into Canada. In the 1920s the main crops reflected eastern and western European tastes - white onions, potatoes, carrots, head lettuce, radish, etc. In the 1950s - 80s Italian greens started to be grown - dandelion, escarole, endive, etc. The 1990s created a demand for Asian greens - bok choy, etc. In the 1980s a German farmer, the wife of a Ukrainian farmer, used to the many herbs and natural plant based remedies in her native country, decided to experiment with growing peppermint for her husband to sell at the Ontario Food Terminal. The idea of fresh herbs caught on like wild fire and today Canadians can find fresh herbs in any fresh produce section of their local grocery store. The expressway (Highway 400) crosses the west-central portion of the Holland Marsh. Yonge Street and the CN rail (Toronto - Barrie) are situated to the northeast.
[edit] Geography
The Holland Marsh is the lowest lying, completely flat acreage (7,200) of the 65,000 acre Nottawasaga Watershed region. The north 40% of the Holland Marsh is located in the first tier municipality of Bradford West Gwillimbury and the second tier municipality of South Simcoe, and the south 60% is located in the first tier municipality of King Township and the second tier municipality of York Region. Bradford West Gwillimbury is responsible for governance of the Holland Marsh Drainage Canal System. The area is oval shaped, with the narrowest points at the northwest and southeast. Irrigation and flood control is provided by the Holland Marsh Drainage Canal System, which completely surrounds the Holland Marsh proper and is the same elevation as Lake simcoe, into which the canals drain. Flowing through the centre of the Holland Marsh from the southeast corner to the northwest corner is the Schomberg River, which the drainage canals were rerouted from, and which is eight feet below the water level of the canals and Lake Simcoe. Two pumphouses drain the canal water into Lake Simcoe. High amounts of rain, a strong southeast wind, or excessive spring ice melts can cause the dykes to breach, and should this happen, the water will not stop flowing into the Holland Marsh until the lowest point, the centre of the marsh, reaches the water level of Lake Simcoe. This will mean many people, cars and houses will be completely underwater.
[edit] History
In October 1954, Hurricane Hazel overwhelmed the marsh's drainage system with heavy rains, and the whole marsh was flooded within six hours of the dykes being breached at the north canal. The canals are designed with the bank on the outside of the marsh several inches lower than the bank on the inside of the marsh so that flooding will occur outside of the marsh first, but the amount of runoff flowing down from the hills northeast of the Holland Marsh was so great that this failsafe became ineffective. The pipes underground the marsh that open into the canal system with one way valves to prevent flooding also became ineffective. Highway 400 was five feet underwater. The residents of the Holland Marsh were alerted to the flood because it happened in the evening when they were in from their fields, and the party phone line rang in all the homes as residents called each other to warn of the flood. Those with houses that had only one floor escaped to neighbours with a second floor, and many had boats or canoes that they used for recreation. Many residents were taken in over the winter by kindly neighbours in the Town of Bradford.
As of fall 2006 the municipal governance responsible for maintaining the drainage canal system has neglected to clean silt from the outer canals (as is their responsibility under the Ontario Drainage Act) since Hurricane Hazel in 1956. Every piece of land paved over in the 65,000 acre Nottawasaga region uphill of the Holland Marsh results in 6 times the amount of silt runoff than virgin land. Many residential subdivisions have been created in York Region, south of the Holland Marsh, stripping topsoil, felling mature trees, and flattening topography, with the result that even uphill land south of the Holland Marsh in King Township is suffering from silt problems and flooding of drainage ponds. A plan to redesign and clean the canals has been created by the Holland Marsh Drainage Engineer, but the municipality of Bradford West Gwillimbury expects farmers in the Holland Marsh to pay over four million dollars for the project, citing the Ontario Drainage Act, even though the majority of the silt is due to developers changing the topography of the Nottawasaga Watershed region. The municipal governance has also failed to build up the dyke roads to the stipulated height cited in the Holland Marsh Road Act, thus increasing flood risk, and has failed to enact a Holland Marsh Road Protocol for slow moving vehicles (as stated in the Official Town Plan of Bradford West Gwillimbury), thus continuing to put farmers at risk of crashes with fast driving commuters taking shortcuts through the Holland Marsh to Hwy 9 and Hwy 400.
On May 31, 1985, a tornado touched down in the Bradford West Gwillimbury portion of the marsh west of Hwy. 400, lifting the roof off of one house on north Canal Road (Simcoe Road #8), and downing power lines and trees and ruining at least one house along Fraser Street. The devastation on Fraser Street was so extensive that it was renamed Tornado Road. The wind of the accompanying storm was of such velocity that many acres of crops were ruined. The storm also resulted in a tornado touching down in Barrie, killing eight and injuring 155 persons, and a tornado touching down in Bolton, destroying at least one house and injuring a teenage girl who was airlifted to hospital and later fully recovered. The Holland Marsh is prone to dust storms.
