MISERY BAY—Members of the Friends of Misery Bay (FOMB) were very pleased to announce that through Ontario Parks (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) there is now a park warden on hand at the park.
“I’m giddy with excitement to announce that we now have a park warden here, funded through Ontario Parks,” stated Megan Bonenfant, at the FOMB annual general meeting June 17. She said Brad Grant will be filling this position at the park.
“There are things that Brad can do that we can’t, such as keeping people from camping on the beach,” said Ken Mackenzie. “We don’t have the authority and enforcement ability that Brad has. There has never been an official presence at the park.”
“It is great that Ontario Parks is funding this position, and basically they have invested in the preservation and natural habitat of the park,” said Mr. Mackenzie.
Mr. Grant noted that one of the biggest parts of being the park warden is in the area of education. “To provide information to visitors of the park what the park is all about and what it has here, inform visitors of all the displays and interactive features in the interpretive centre and out in the park. And to provide information on why the park is here.”
“This is a nature reserve park, so I will explain to visitors why the park is here, and why we don’t encourage people bringing a boom box to play their music while walking on the trails,” said Mr. Grant. “And there is the added element that hasn’t been here before (in terms of enforcement) as a deterrent of what people shouldn’t be doing do while they are visiting the park; and my role is to promote why the park is so important.”
He explained he will be at Misery Bay Park five days of the week. “I will be here on Saturday and Sundays, and I’ll move my days around to accommodate this. I will be responsible for everything from trail and sign maintenance, education and I will be working with the FOMB on what they would like to see me do. He said although he is the park warden for not only Misery Bay but Strawberry Island, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Mnidoo Mnissing Provincial Park, will be based at Misery Bay. “I will help those other parks when ministry technicians are visiting the park.”
Mr. Grant told the group, “I come here after having worked at several smaller parks in the past through the MNRF (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry).” He was previously the park warden at Rainbow Falls in Terrace Bay, previous to that as assistant superintendent at Pakwash in Red Lake, and previous to that was a fisheries technician for the ministry. “In total I have worked five years with the ministry,” he told The Expositor.
“This park is absolutely gorgeous, because of its habitat, natural preservation, geology and natural history and so much been done with the park with the trail system and the visitors centre,” said Mr. Grant. “My job and the main reason I will be here is to help you guys out. We are taking a more hands on approach to the park. I see this as a good thing. And we can all work together.”
“I hope you understand how glad we are that you are here,” said an FOMB member.
EDITOR’S NOTE: See more coverage of the FOMB annual general meeting in a future edition of the Expositor.
