Ferdinand Alphonse Fortunat Larose (April 1, 1888 - January 29, 1955) was a French Canadian agronomist, best known for having created in Ontario one of the largest regeneration forests in the 1920s, named after him.
Ferdinand Alphonse Fortunat Larose (April 1, 1888 - January 29, 1955) was a French Canadian agronomist, best known for having created in Ontario one of the largest regeneration forests in the 1920s, named after him.
Born in Sarsfield, Ontario, Larose studied at the University of Ottawa, where he obtained his diplomas B.A. in 1910 and B.Ph. in 1912 and L.Ph. (Philosophy). He later studied at the Agricultural Institute of Oka (CAE), graduating in Agronomic Sciences in 1919. The same year he became employed in the service of the Ontario Department of Agriculture.
Having established an office in Plantagenet, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, he started an inventory of agricultural lands. Discovering that the area around Bourget was a desert of abandoned sandy soil farmland and presented signs of erosion yielding to the advance of the "Bourget Desert", he suggested reforesting this "Bourget Desert" and launched a plan to sow a forest. [1] Ferdinand Larose had set up a small-scale reforestation experiment with seeds and planting trees in 1921-1923 (the Plantagent Demonstration Woodlot),. [2] In 1926 he started a wasteland utilization campaign in Prescott and Russell counties. [3]
In 1927 he became secretary of the newly founded Committee of Conservation and Reforestation of the united counties. In 1928 he obtained permission to work on a large-scale reforestation. For this, in 1928, the United Counties of Prescott and Russell acquired, on Larose's insistence, the territory of the future forest. This Prescot and Russel County forest, later called Larose Forest, became one of the largest man and hand planted forest in Canada. It covers an area of 110 square km in Clarence-Rockland, The Nation, Alfred and Plantagenet and Russell territories. [4] Ferdinand Larose was then nicknamed The Man Who Planted Trees , after the short novel by French nature writer Jean Giono. [5] He continued stimulating the selling of abandoned farms by the united counties for further reforestation. [6] He also organised in the late 1930s forest visiting tours to convince politicians to invest in better reforestation. [7] [8] As a result, he could speed up reforestation to about 1 million trees planted annually at the end of the 1940s, early 1950s. [9]
Larose was largely involved in organising farmers and was one of the founders of the Union des cultivateurs franco-ontariens in 1929. [10] Larose also contributed to agricultural education by the creation of agricultural school-clubs for boys and girls in 1935 in each parish of the united Counties. [11]
He also fought for teaching in French, and gave agricultural courses in French, in Kent and Essex counties (1934). At his request, circles of French women farmers were created in those counties in 1936. With the support of Antonin Lalonde, president of the Catholic Union of the Franco-Ontarian farmers, Larose also obtained sewing and cooking education in French for the farmers' wives. [12]
Larose retired in 1950 and was succeeded by Lawrence Faber. He died January 29, 1955, in Montreal at age 66 and is buried in the Plantagenet cemetery. [13] [14] [15] [16]
In 1988, the Franco-Ontarian Agricultural Merit was awarded for the first time. The first two winners were Larose and Antonin Lalonde (1911-1985), both posthumously.
In 2004, the Ferdinand Larose Environmental Prize was established in his honor by the French Canadian Association of Ontario and Prescott Russell. The prize was awarded for the first time in 2007, posthumously, to Ernest Hurtubise, of Bourget, the spiritual son of Larose . Gilles Trahan, (Hawkesbury educator), was the 2008 winner and in 2014, the family business Legault Les Serres .
As of 2016, the 10,700 hectare forest, originally a man-made conifer plantation, is now a mature mixed forest with a diversity of trees including maples, [17] wild flowers, insects and many species of birds and other animals, including mooses. [18] "Three generations of forest workers have successively planted trees and maintained the forest. In all, more than 18 million trees have been planted". [19]
Franco-Ontarians are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2021, according to the Government of Ontario, there were 650,000 Francophones in the province. The majority of Franco-Ontarians in the province reside in Eastern Ontario, Northeastern Ontario, and Central Ontario, although small francophone communities may be found in other regions of the province.
The Nation is a municipality in Eastern Ontario, located within Canada's National Capital Region, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. Formed in 1998, the municipality consists of the former townships of Caledonia, Cambridge and South Plantagenet, as well as the Village of St. Isidore.
Alfred and Plantagenet is a Franco-Ontarian township in eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. Located approximately 70 km (43 mi) from downtown Ottawa at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the South Nation River.
The United Counties of Prescott and Russell is a county located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its county seat is L'Orignal. The county was created as a result of a merger between Russell County and Prescott County in 1820. It is located in Eastern Ontario, in the wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River, approximately 55 kilometres (34 mi) east of the City of Ottawa. Under Ontario law, the county is an Upper-tier Municipality.
Eastern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River. It shares water boundaries with Quebec to the north and New York State to the east and south, as well as a small land boundary with the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region of Quebec to the east.
Bourget is an unincorporated village in Eastern Ontario, Canada, near the Cobbs Lake Creek, in the city of Clarence-Rockland in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell.
Cobbs Lake Creek is a creek in Prescott and Russell County in eastern Ontario, Canada, which empties into the South Nation River.
The Francophone Association of Municipalities of Ontario is a Canadian political organization of municipalities in the province of Ontario which have significant Franco-Ontarian communities. The organization oversees the maintenance and development of municipal government services in French, and works with other levels of government, as well as organizations in other Canadian provinces, on issues unique to francophone and bilingual communities.
Lemieux is a ghost town in the Canadian province of Ontario, which was located on the shore of the South Nation River in the Prescott and Russell County township of South Plantagenet. The community was abandoned over a two-year period from 1989 to 1991, after soil testing revealed that the town was built on unstable Leda clay, a type of subsoil which can liquefy under stress, and was consequently in danger of experiencing a landslide similar to the one that destroyed the town of Saint-Jean-Vianney, Quebec in 1971.
Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l'Est ontarien is the Roman Catholic separate, French language school board for the Southeastern region of Ontario. It is headquartered in L'Orignal, a largely French-speaking town in eastern Ontario, and serves the counties of Prescott and Russell and Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. This school board has 32 schools in total, including 7 secondary schools.
Bobby Lalonde is a Canadian musician originating from the Ottawa Valley.
L'École secondaire catholique de Plantagenet is a French-Language Catholic high school located in Plantagenet, Ontario. It is managed by the Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l'Est ontarien.
The Prescott-Russell Recreational Trail (Trail) is a 72 kilometres (45 mi) long former rail trail in Prescott-Russell, Ontario, Canada, maintained by a non profit corporation. The trail begins at the Quebec border in the east, just outisde of the village of Saint-Eugène and goes to the eastern boundary of the City of Ottawa, passing through the townships of East Hawkesbury, Champlain, The Nation, Alfred and Plantagenet, and Clarence-Rockland.
Amanda Simard is the former MPP for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. Simard was elected in the 2018 provincial election as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, but left the PC caucus on November 29, 2018 after Ontario premier Doug Ford eliminated the province's French-language services commissioner and cancelled plans for a new French language university. On January 16, 2020, Simard joined the Ontario Liberal Party. She lost her seat in the 2022 Ontario general election.
Gaétan Gervais, was a Canadian author, historian and university professor, most noted as a prominent figure in Franco-Ontarian culture. With a group of university students at Laurentian University, he designed the Franco-Ontarian flag, and was a founding member of the Franco-Ontarian Institute.
Larose Forest is a man-made forest in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, Ontario, Canada. It is about 60 kilometres (37 mi) east of Ottawa, straddling the boundary of Clarence-Rockland and The Nation municipality.
S.O.S. Montfort was a Franco-Ontarian movement that fought to save Montfort Hospital, the only primarily francophone hospital in Ontario, after the Mike Harris government announced it would be shutting down the hospital in 1997. One of the largest mass movements in Franco-Ontarian history, the level of mobilisation it saw and the ultimate success of the campaign has been noted as a significant moment in the struggle for French-language rights in Ontario and in the wider Canada.
The 2018 Franco-Ontarian Black Thursday occurred on 15 November 2018, when the government of Ontario, led by Doug Ford, announced a number of cuts to Franco-Ontarian institutions in the province, notably the elimination of the office of the French Language Services Commissioner and of the soon-to-be-opened Université de l'Ontario français. The cuts provoked a significant backlash from the Franco-Ontarian community, leading to the largest mass mobilisations in Franco-Ontarian history, surpassing those of SOS Montfort two decades earlier, and leading to the government of Ontario mostly backing down from the cuts.
"Notre Place" is the official community anthem of the Franco-Ontarian people in the province of Ontario, Canada.
The Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens is a Canadian trade union representing 13,110 teachers and other workers in Ontario's French-language public education system, including employees both of secular and Roman Catholic school boards. It also represents workers at the Lycée Claudel d'Ottawa, Le Cap in Ottawa, and the Centre Jules-Léger. Founded on 12 May 1939, the association is an affiliate of the Ontario Teachers' Federation and the Canadian Teachers' Federation.