Algonquin eco-watch
...orest management to ensure the continuation of the high quality work that is already underway, and the impact of fishing on fish populations in Algonquin Park. One of the tools that can help maintain healthy ecosystems, in heavily populated and utilized areas, is careful and properly controlled logging and prescribed burning. When properly used, these tools will help maintain normal wildlife and plant populations in the Park. Continued educational upgrading of tree markers together with objective operational field auditing will be necessary if forest management is to achieve its goals in the Algonquin Ecosystem. Over cutting of hemlock, an important winter shelter species for deer, contributed strongly to the decline of the Algonquin deer population during the late 1960’s and 1970’s. Moose, a species better adapted to the rigours of Algonquin winters subsequently replaced deer as the predominant Algonquin ungulate. In addition to providing excellent winter shelter however, hemlock is a preferred food for both moose and deer and heavy long-term browsing by these species has consequently allowed very little recruitment, or escape to the overstory, with hemlock slowly becoming a decreasing component of the Algonquin forest. Tourism in Ontario is all about the outdoors. It just makes sense it should be environmentally responsible and environment-friendly. • Ontario has Canada's largest tourism industry accounting for 37% of national tourism revenues and 44% of its visitors. • Ontario's tourism industry provided 412,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs, representing almost 8% of Ontario's employment. • In 1997, 101.2 million visitors accounted for $14.1 billion in tourism expenditures in Ontario. • Tourism was Ontario's 6th largest export industry, bringing into the province $6.1 billion in foreign exchange from outside Canada. Eco-tourism: where the entire operation and ex...