Haliburton Forest

Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve Ltd. is a 300 km2 forest in Haliburton County, Ontario. Forestry operations within the reserve are certified by the international Forest Stewardship Council in Canada. Haliburton Forest also supports ecosystem-based research projects, primarily conducted by the University of Toronto's Faculty of Forestry, and operates year-round recreation, tourism, and education programs.

History
In the British North American Province of Upper Canada, the northern townships of Peterborough County were first surveyed during the winters of 1862 and 1863. In 1885, 10 of these townships were sold to the London-based Canadian Land and Emigration Company under the leadership of Thomas Chandler Haliburton.

The company planned on subdividing its holdings into 100 acre lots and selling them to British emigrants as farmland. These plans were soon canceled when it became obvious that the plots in question, with the exception of a few small parcels, were unsuitable for agriculture. The company went into receivership and was renamed the "Canadian Land and Immigration Company", with headquarters in Toronto.

From 1870 to 1910, large lumber companies acquired cutting rights and cleared most of the white pine stands.

By the 1930s, up to 80,000 acre remained in the hands of the Algonquin Corporation who continued harvesting timber until they were acquired by Hay and Co., a veneer milling company based in Woodstock, Ontario, in 1946. Between 1946 and 1971, more than 150000000 board feet of lumber had been sawn and several million more board feet of veneer left northern Haliburton for the mother mill in Woodstock. Most of this timber was cut on the land that today makes up Haliburton Forest.

By 1960, two forest inventories suggested that the harvestable volume of timber was rapidly declining on Hay and Co. lands, which had been taken over in the meantime by Weldwood of Canada. The decline in trees due to destructive harvesting methods and the sheer volume cut down during the past century left future milling to be deemed detrimental to the area and unprofitable. This eventually would lead to the land being put up for sale.

In 1962, German Baron von Fuerstenberg acquired the Weldwood property and renamed his holding Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve Ltd. Previously, the lakeshores of Redstone and Kennisis Lakes had been sold off to a development company. The timber rights remained with the Weldwood mill until 1967 before being turned over to the new company. A few years later, in 1970, the sawmill at Kennisis Lake closed down.

Fishing
Several of the lakes within the park are home to native brook trout and lake trout. Four lakes (Stocking Lake, Dutton, No Name Lake, Wildcat Lake) are naturally reproducing Brook Trout lakes.

There are also several bass fisheries within the forest.

Wolf Centre
The Wolf Centre opened in July 1996 to the general public and is home to a pack of five timber wolves (Canis lupus). Within the 61000 m2 enclosure (one of the largest in the world), they roam freely. Fed on a random schedule (approximately once a week), they can often be found near the viewing area due to it being close to both the highest point in the enclosure and the wolf's water source.

Three months prior to the opening, Patricia Wyman, a new employee at the facility, was attacked by the wolves and died. Her body was found wearing nothing and featuring multiple mauling wounds.

EcoLog Homes
EcoLog Homes is a builder and supplier of log home kits. The logs they harvest come from the 70,000 acre within Haliburton Forest & Wildlife Reserve Ltd. Each season, mature hemlock becomes ready for harvesting, with some trees measuring up to thirty inches in diameter. Each tree is felled and skidded by horse before being transported to the nearby Haliburton Forest Mill. Each board is squared for timbers or sawn into boards for planking.

Canopy Tour
The Canopy Tour experience, named "A Walk in the Clouds", is offered to those who visit the reserve and includes the following: a guided van tour through the private lands of Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve Ltd. that passes through forests and along lakes and streams; a 0.5 km walk along the scenic Pelaw River: a short, guided voyageur-canoe ride across a wilderness lake to the final destination—Canopy Boardwalk.

Snowmobiling
Haliburton Forest is the only wholly privately owned snowmobiling operation in the world, holding 80,000 acre of forest wilderness, 50 lakes, and numerous ponds and creeks across the area. The core of the 300 km trail system is double-tracked and up to 20 ft wide, with single-tracked trails that access some of the remote areas within the property. Half a dozen shelter cabins dot the forest, equipped with stoves and firewood.

Dog sledding
Both half and full-day dog sledding tours are available at Haliburton Forest along groomed winter trails with over 130 Siberian Huskies. Professional guides provide introduction to the basics of dogsledding.

Mountain biking
Many roads and forest trails are available for mountain bikers on the reserve, with the cycling season extending from Victoria Day to the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Astronomy
Due to its location three hours north of the lights of the Golden Horseshoe, Haliburton Forest is part of the Algonquin Dome, offering light-free viewing of the skies. This location allows astronomers to observe stars, galaxies, and deep-sky objects not normally observed in light-polluted locations.

Situated on a small rise near the entry point into the forest, an observatory offers an unobstructed view of the night skies. Much of the upper floor is reserved for telescopes and other astronomy equipment; however, the ground floor is open to visitors and is even set up for presentations.

There are two 10″ and one 12″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. They are self-tracking and equipped with computerized functions accessing a 64,000-object database.

Sawmill tours
The new Haliburton Forest sawmill opened to the public in 2010, and hosts tours featuring the milling process.

The Forest Festival
The annual Forest Festival is held within Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve.