b'SITE LIFE CYCLEFrom PITto PICTURESQUE COUNTRYSIDE By Carly HolmsteadWhat it really means to surrender an aggregate licence or permit in Ontario: follow a sites life cycle on the TOARC websiteI tsanage-oldquestion:whatREHABILITATION: ITS THE LAW! quarriesdone correctly, to the naked eye you would happenstoapitorquarryonceTherehabilitationofpitsandneverknowitwasonceanaggregate extraction has been completed andisanimportantstepinthesustainableextractionsite,andthatisreallythe thelicenceorpermitissurren- management of aggregate resources in theultimate goal, says Solondz. dered?Itishardtobelievethatprovince.Infact,tohavealicence/permit thousandsofsiteshavebeensurren- for extraction, producers must have a formalExceptionalrehabilitationpractices deredandthatcommunitiesoftenrehabilitation plan fully in place. Consultationexist and are often applied, but they can never know they were once home to anwiththepublic,conservationauthorities,gounnoticedandunappreciatedbythe aggregate extraction site.municipalities,Indigenouscommunitiespublic due to a lack of information. The By definition, surrendered aggregateand the MNRF all contribute to determiningSurrendered Sites Reporting and Mapping the land use after extraction.Tool(eSurrender),locatedthrough licensedandpermittedsitesaresitesTOARCswebsite,allowscommunity where extraction has been completed,This use could be wetlands, agriculturalmembers to see a surrendered site, photos whererehabilitationhastakenplacefields, natural areas, parks or waterbodies.of the rehabilitated land, and a breakdown perthesiteplan,andwheretheProperrehabilitationhelpstotransitionof the land useall in one place. The licence/permithasbeenrelinquishedfrom a land-use of aggregate extraction topublic can use the tool to better grasp what bythelicencee/permitteetotheother productive land-use activities, whichthe end use of the site will look like, says MinistryofNaturalResourcesandreducesland-useconflictandaddressesSolondz. It is often hard to imagine how Forestry(MNRF). social,economicandenvironmentalan open aggregate site will blend in with concerns, say Danielle Solondz, programsurrounding landscape when rehabilitation So,backtothequestion.WhatmanagerforTheOntarioAggregateis completed.happens to a pit or quarry once theResources Corporation (TOARC). licence is surrendered? Pits and quarrieseSurrender allows for a more transparent are a temporary land use, so before theRehabilitation looks different at each siteprocess and better knowledge of the types licence is surrendered to the MNRF finaland really depends on what the surroundingofrehabilitationthatcanbecompleted. rehabilitation is completed. landisusedfor.WhenrehabilitationisSomepeoplemayevenbesurprisedto 16 AVENUESWINTER 2023'