Edmund Zavits

Edmund John Zavitz dedicated his life to restoring Ontario’s forests and became the foster father of more than one billion trees.

Following “the coming of the Loyalists” in 1784 and approximately 100 years of subsequent permanent settlement, southern Ontario’s primordial forests had all but disappeared: they had provided the lumber needed by a growing province and had given way to prosperous farms. In some areas, however, the deforested lands had been unable to sustain farming and had become windblown deserts dotted with abandoned homes, barns, and farm equipment.

Such bleak scenes greeted E.J. Zavitz when he first toured these “waste lands” during the early years of the twentieth century. The Ontario government had commissioned the young forester to report on ways of restoring those desolate areas to productivity.

Following his retirement as Chief Forester, Edmund J. Zavitz was honoured by the Ontario government for his pioneering work as a reforester. Erected at St. Williams, Ontario, where E.J. Zavitz created the first forestry station in 1908, this historical plaque was unveiled shortly after Zavitz, standing second from left, retired from public service in 1953. To the far right is Mr. Leslie Gray, Historic Sites Board Member. Next to him is the Hon. Clare E. Mapledoran, Minister, Lands and Forests for the province. [Photo courtesy Norfolk Historical Society, Eva Brook Donly Museum]

One photograph Zavitz took during his travels shows a derelict farm in southern Norfolk county with its fences buried in drifting sand – a stark record of such broken dreams and waste as later would be associated with the dust bowl conditions of the Dirty Thirties on the Canadian prairies.

Zavitz’s 1908 report, Reforestation of Waste Lands in Southern Ontario, contained his amateur photographs and his then revolutionary proposal to begin replanting these wastelands with trees. It spurred the provincial government into action, and, later that year, the government of the day provided $1000 to begin the experimental reforestation of 100 acres of abandoned land near the village of St. Williams in Norfolk County. From these modest beginnings, Zavitz would spend the next 50 years initiating and nurturing one of the most ambitious and comprehensive reforestation programs in North America.

Born in Ridgway, Ontario, in 1875, Zavitz left school early to work as a plumber, barn painter, and sawmill worker. At age 19, he resumed his education, graduating from McMaster University in 1903 with a keen interest in the relatively new science of forestry. He pursued his studies at both Yale University and the University of Michigan, the latter graduating him with a master of science degree in Forestry in 1905.

The Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph hired him as the province’s first lecturer in Forestry, and he began developing a small tree nursery, one of the very first in the province. Soon he was providing the nursery’s seedlings free to local farmers and encouraging them to plant windrows of trees to prevent erosion and to reclaim land unsuitable for farming.

Over the next three years, his travels to deserted farmlands in Norfolk, Durham, Simcoe, and Prince Edward counties convinced him that these wastelands could be returned to usefulness through tree farming undertaken by governments as well as private land owners. His 1908 report includes a surprisingly modern cost/benefit analysis, concluding with the pragmatic arguments that such a program would “pay as a financial investment, assist in ensuring wood supply, protect the headwaters of streams and provide breeding grounds for wild game.”

Zavitz also shared a growing public concern about the general decimation of Ontario’s Carolinian forests. In 1909, his warning that the cutting of timber in Rondeau Park would cause a storm of public protest forced the government to abandon its plans. Through his keen perceptions and actions, he correctly anticipated, more than 50 years ahead of its time, the modern battles between logging companies and the environmentalist movement.

In 1912, Zavitz was appointed as Ontario’s first Provincial Forester in the new Department of Lands, Forests, and Mines. Under Zavitz’s direction, the Department’s forestry branch expanded its work to include, in addition to reforestation, fire protection and forest surveying. Through Zavitz’s pioneering work in each of these areas, Ontario won international recognition for its striking progress in forestry management. His leadership was affirmed in 1925 when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Forestry, a position he held until the Department was reorganized in 1934.

Zavitz became Ontario’s Chief Forester in that year, with primary responsibilities for the province’s expanding reforestation program. This included the establishment of four more forestry nurseries in Orono, Midhurst, Kemptville, and Fort William. Along with St. Williams, these nurseries cover nearly 10,000 acres of land. By the time Zavitz retired from public service in 1953, at age 78, the five provincial nurseries were producing about 21 million seedlings a year – a far cry from the 300,000 produced by Zavitz’s fledging Guelph nursery in 1905.

In addition to the government nurseries, E.J. Zavitz had witnessed the setting aside of another 5000 acres of government land for special reforestation projects. Most counties also established municipal forests covering another 80,000 acres. His original 100-acre experiment at St. Williams grew to more than a thousandfold during his long career in public service. He continued to serve the cause of reforestation throughout the 1950s as a consultant to the Department of Lands and Forests.

Of Empire Loyalist descent, Edmund John Zavitz died in 1967 at age 92 and is buried not far from the St. Williams nursery in a cemetery outside the village of Forestville, a fitting resting place for the Father of Reforestation.