15 years in the making, Guelph Lake Rotary Trail

It took 15 years, but Guelph River Conservation Area is now home to Guelph Lake Rotary Trail.

The trail is largely made up of trees planted by volunteers over the years to create a forest. The idea for the forest came from a previous Rotary Club of Guelph president, Clare Rennie.

Rennie passed away in June of 2016. Part of the forest is dedicated to Rennie, with two benches overlooking the entirety of Guelph Lake Rotary Forest along with a maple tree. The lookout is appropriately named Clare’s Lookout, in his honour.

The idea was for the forest to be planted to celebrate the Rotary Club of Guelph’s 100th anniversary in 2020, but had to be delayed due to the pandemic.

“The big thing I think everybody noticed during the pandemic is that they couldn’t do an awful lot, so they spent a lot more time outdoors. Just the restorative impacts of walking through a forest and being closer to nature,” said David Latreille, co-chair of the environment committee at the Rotary Club of Guelph.

“I remember being there 10 years ago, walking across the mulch where the trail would be,” said Chris White, chair of the Grand River Conservation Authority.

The land the forest and trail are on was purchased by the GRCA. The property was previously a farm and there was an opportunity for it to be reforested.

To have the forest come to life, the Rotary Club of Guelph hosted annual Earth Day events and invited community members to plant trees. About 60,000 trees were planted.

The trail spans 1.4 kilometres and the forest is 100 acres.

“To go in there and plant 100 acres of trees is a huge undertaking,” said White.

“You’ve got a forest with different levels of growth in it and as the forest grows the trail will grow.”