After 22 amazing years, Helen O’Brian is stepping off the Board of the Mayne Island Conservancy. A founder of the organization, a dedicated Director who helped shape the organization as it now is, and a tireless supporter of conservation, Helen holds a key role in the Conservancy’s success. I recently sat down with Helen to learn more about how she became interested in conservation, how the Conservancy got started, and what she thinks about where the organization is at this point in time.

Peter

I’m interested to know how you got started in environmental work. What prompted you to get involved in nature and conservation activities?

Helen

When I was a child my parents had a farm outside of Toronto where we lived. We spent a lot of weekends and holidays at that farm, and I remember having my first vegetable garden when I was four or five. I used to spend lots of time mucking about in the creeks that ran through the property, and I just loved it. I think the conservation movement back then wasn’t very strong – people did things we no longer think of doing, like sinking our cans in Georgian Bay! In 1969, just before we were married, John and I bought an old farm north of Toronto on the Niagara Escarpment where we spent many happy times over the years with our three daughters. The Escarpment stretches from Hamilton to the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, and in 1967, two years before we bought our property, the Bruce Trail Conservancy was established to protect the Escarpment and its natural habitats and landscapes. In 1990 the Escarpment was designated a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.This was my first introduction to land conservation.

In the early 1980s Ontario Hydro announced that it was going to build a hydro line across the Escarpment to connect the Bruce Nuclear Plant to Barrie and then south. Its proposal included a 17-story transmission tower on the Escarpment, very close to our farm. We were outraged, and, with other landholders in the area, we raised funds for legal costs and fought the case to a triumphant end. Today there are communications towers that dot that part of the Escarpment, but it remains free of the mega structures of the sort Ontario Hydro had proposed.

In 1987 John and I moved to the West Coast and in 1998 bought our farm, Hatake, here on Mayne Island

Peter

A few years later you became involved with the Friends of Mount Parke Society. How did that happen?

Helen

About two years after we came to Mayne, John Charowsky, a potter, and Jonathan Chilvers, then owner of Oceanwood, asked me if I was interested in helping them acquire the land now known as Miners Bay Park. At that time it was owned by the Bennett family who gave access to the community for the Christmas tree event every year. It was zoned commercial, which meant it could have been developed, so we went to work to save it as the commons for Mayne Island. We approached the Bennetts, came to an agreement with them, and began a campaign to raise the funds within the community. As you know, the campaign was successful, and this was the first piece of land on Mayne Island bought by the community for the community.

Friends of Mount Parke followed shortly after. People on the island liked hiking the park, but only a very small part of the ridge was actually within the park’s boundary. The owners of Glen Echo agreed to sell their ridge acreage, and the CRD was on board to put in two thirds of the price if we could raise the remaining one third. In the end the owner of the Glen Echo property decided he would only sell the entire 240 acres, not just the top of the ridge. Ron Pither and I tried in vain to come up with a viable plan to acquire and protect the property, but in the end we had to abandon the project. I think the attitude towards conservation at that time on Mayne Island was not as great as it is now, and we would have had trouble convincing the community to put money into this land-locked 240 acres that not many people knew or perhaps cared about. Today, however, I’m really pleased that the prime purpose of Friends of Mount Parke was finally achieved in 2020 with the purchase by the CRD (with financial assistance from the Mayne Island Conservancy) of 42 hectares /103.7 acres. The ridge is now all part of Mount Parke Park.

Peter

So how did the Friends of Mount Parke Society evolve into the Mayne island Conservancy?

Helen

Well, as we sat around Ed Pedersen’s kitchen table and wiped our tears because we hadn’t achieved the original goal, we also realized that we had raised awareness on the island about the importance of land conservation, and we had lots of people on board. No longer a single issue organization as the name suggested, we decided to call it the Mayne Island Conservancy Society and carry on with environmental education, which had now become our purpose.

Peter

You’re now stepping off as a Director after 22 years of service. Do you remember when you started what things you had in mind for the organization besides education?

Helen

The Conservancy continued to grow, and around 2008 we hired Leanna Boyer to be our first employee. Leanna was a marine biologist who had moved to the island, and we asked her if she would like to get involved in marine issues. She was very interested but wanted to do so as an employee, not as a volunteer. In 2008 she guided us through our first big grant application and became our first employee, a position that morphed into our first Executive Director until she left the island, at which time Michael Dunn took over.

Peter

What do you feel have been the greatest accomplishments for the Conservancy from the 22 years you’ve been involved?

Helen

The one that always comes to mind first for me is Saint John Point, because that was such a huge project. It seemed almost impossible, but I said to the directors and staff, “how could we not at least try?” And we did, and we succeeded. But I also think the community was at a point of awareness and readiness to participate in a big campaign. And, thanks to Michael Dunn, who led us through all the many and complicated steps to become a Land Trust, we were ready and able to hold land and covenants. Ready for our successful campaign.

Because of the engaging outreach and educational work the Conservancy had undertaken over the years, there was a greater level of awareness in the community of the need to protect the Point. Islanders were also increasingly aware of the ecological value of the land, and we gained a lot of support within the community.

Peter

Casting your thoughts forward, what do you hope the Conservancy will do over the next decade?

Helen

I would say carrying on with the things we’ve done and continue to do—don’t get overstretched—and maintain the relationships that have been developed with landholders and the community. I think that landholders can increasingly become more attentive to the land that they are stewarding, realizing that we don’t really own the land but are stewards of the land while we are here.

Peter

Thanks Helen, is there anything else you’d like to say before we end this interview?

Helen

I can’t tell you how very rewarding it has been to be a part of the growth and development of this amazing organization. So much has been accomplished with so much more to be done, all in the name of making Mayne Island and all that live here, whether they be two legged, four legged, winged, crawling or rooted to the ground, a better and healthier community. I feel certain that the Mayne Island Conservancy is here to stay and to contribute to the health of the planet.