[LINK] "Rice farming in Ontario lake sparks fight over treaty and property rights"

[rfmcdonald]

The Globe and Mail's Oliver Sachgau described a controversy surrounding the harvesting of wild rice in a southern Ontario lake.

For years, residents near Pigeon Lake in Southern Ontario were unhappy with a local wild rice harvester who was seeding the lake, filling their shorelines with the marshy plant. But when the locals decided to take action and cut down the plants, the simmering tension exploded into a fight over treaty and property rights.

The fight is raising fundamental questions over the balance of the rights of the residents, who see the lake as a recreational area and important waterway for their boats, with the rights of the First Nation community, who see the lake as an important source of food, protected by their treaty.

The issue revolves around the northern wild rice that grows on Pigeon Lake, in the Kawartha Lakes region, about 150 kilometres northeast of Toronto. The rice, which grows in tall, thick stalks, has always been a part of the lake’s ecosystem.

[. . .]

The rice has proliferated in recent years, and now covers an estimated 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the lake’s 57 square kilometres.

Larry Wood, a local, said he noticed a First Nations man spreading rice seeds across the lake a few years ago. It is that seeding he blames for the spread of the rice, which he says has now made the waterfront inaccessible for boats and is bringing down property values.