b'SITE REHABILITATIONMINDINGSharing our rehabilitation THE MYTHS successes is crucial for telling our storyBy Ashlee ZelekI ts virtually impossible to return farmland to its previousexamples of gravel pits transformed into productive agricultural land, level of productivity. Guelph MPP and leader of the Greenas well as sufficient resources and best management practices around PartyofOntarioMikeSchreinerboldlydeclaredthisinagricultural rehabilitation.March 2023 in reference to restoring former gravel pits to productive farmland.For example, in the 1980s, Mackintosh and Mozuraitis conducted extensive work on sites in Southern Ontario to provide an inventory Thissentimentechoessimilarassertionsheardovertheyearsoflocationsrehabilitatedtoagriculture,evaluatethesuccessof from advocacy groups like Gravel Watch and Reform Gravel Miningrehabilitation procedures, and to determine challenges. The study Coalition, as well as from the Ontario Farming Association. The latterfound that if one uses pre-and post-extractive soil capability class said that once land is disturbed to extract aggregates, it is rarelyas the criterion for success, 60-70 per cent of the sites studied can be rehabilitated to the level necessary to become productive agriculturalconsidered successful in their rehabilitation programs. land again.In 2013, The Ontario Aggregate Resources Corporation (TOARC) The problem with this sentiment is that it is not true, despite theundertook a similar study and concluded that 67 per cent of surrendered reignited fervour in the Agriculture vs Aggregate debate across thesites in the study had no differences between the rehabilitated and province. This view is still being voiced notwithstanding the manyundisturbed agricultural areas.'