LETTERS: Leave the fossils alone at Craigleith

BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letters are in response to a column by BarrieToday reporter Kevin Lamb about collecting trilobites in Craigleith.

I just read Kevin Lamb's story about fossils in Craigleith.

I write, because it is illegal to gather, or take away, fossils at Craigleith Provincial Park.

They ask park visitors not to gather, or take away, fossils. They have rules about tree-cutting and other environment-protecting things.

Yes, the fossils are there. But it takes breaking shale to find them.

They don't want people breaking shale at the Craigleith Provincial Park beach area.

Kevin's story could encourage people to visit the park and take fossils.

I get that Kevin indicated that people are not allowed to take specimens away from the park property and (almost gleefully) he writes about taking them from the shoreline area outside the park. 

I think people should leave the fossils alone.

George Czerny-Holownia
Collingwood

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I have to agree with the above letter writer regarding Mr. Lamb's recent column about taking trilobite fossils from the Craigleith shale beaches.

Had it been April 1, I would've sworn Mr. Lamb's article, and his seeming joy at smashing 450-million-year-old rock formations with a hammer, was an April Fool's prank.

While the author correctly notes that you aren't allowed to take fossils from the provincial park, what he fails to mention, or is ignorant of, is that significant portions of the shale beaches in Craigleith (outside the park) are "Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest," specifically for the presence of shale rock and fossils.

These areas need protection and careful management to preserve the fossil and rock formations for scientific reasons, but also to allow all of us — and future generations — enjoy them.

Visit the shale beaches. Hunt for fossils. Take pictures.

But leave your hammer at home.

Will Thomson
Collingwood