There have been changes to the organizational structure of the group that wants to retain and expand what’s known as the Gillies Grove Nature Reserve in Arnprior.
Formed in 2024 over the perceived threat that 20 acres of meadowland to be ceded by the Galilee Centre Retreat to Cavanagh Homes would stunt the pristine Old Growth Forest in the heart of Arnprior, the body is now an incorporated Not-for-Profit organization, according to its President, Lacey Smith.
Lacey says a series of monthly nature walks has spread awareness both amongst the community and visitors to town.
With the permission of owners the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Smith’s group has been taking inventory of the flora and fauna of Gillies Grove to ascertain what’s at potential risk should residential development press forward on the 20 acre parcel.
She says the summer and fall have been a valuable time where knowledge was gathered, and simultaneously shared.
The Friends of the Grove, now with a war chest, is keeping some strategies very close to the vest.
Lacey Smith says that doesn’t mean- as some at the Town of Arnprior would have you believe, that any development if and when it comes forward, can’t be stopped.
Although what are being expressed are only fears at this time, as the local group connects with like souls nationally, and regionally, it worries that a particular corporate citizen’s environmental record is nowhere near as pristine as the trees it is seeking to protect.
By Rick Stow