The conservation authority movement in Ontario is world renowned, and professionals and parliamentarians from other provinces, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other parts of the owrld have come to study it. Unique in Canada until 1970, the program has proved so effective that it is now being emulated in two other provinces – Manitoba and Quebec. This history of the conservation authorities in Ontario demonstrates the reasons for the success of the movement.
The movement began in the early thirties with the formation of interested groups such as the Ontario Conservation and Reforestation Association and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. The Guelph Conference in 1941 brought these early conservationists together, and as a result of its deliberations and recommendations, the Ontario government estalished the Conservation Branch in 1943, and passed the Conservation Authorities Act in 1946. Since then, thirty-eight authorities have been established.
One of the principles underlying the strength and success of the movement has been the emphasis on community initiative. The community must first recognize the need for action on a problem and be willing to contribute financially to the undertaking before the government will institute an authority in the region. The conservation movement has been a movement of, by, and for the people over the past twenty-five years.
As the first director of the Conservation Branch, Dr. Richardson was at the centre of the development of conservation in Ontario from 1944-1961 – a period when conservation embraced recreation, historical preservation, and youth work, as well as such concerns as flood control, reforrestation, soil protection, and wildlife management. A.S. I. Barnes, who worked with Dr. Richardson, and succeeded him as director of the renamed Conservation Authorities Branch, has supplemented Dr. Richardson’s account with material concerning this period from 1961-1971.
