Ed Giffin Honoured by OFAH

Jeff Green | Apr 08, 2010

Although Ed Giffin lives in Inverary now, he continues to be known for the way he tied business and conservation interests together in establishing and running Tumblehome Lodge, near Ardoch, with his wife Shirley.

Giffin, 70, recently received a major award, the Jack O’Dette Conservation Leadership Award, from the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH). While the award was precipitated by his work for the OFAH, his longstanding work on conservation and watershed issues along the Mississippi Valley were mentioned as well. “The award is important to me because it is named after Jack O’Dette, whom I knew well and respected,” Giffin said when interviewed by the News earlier this week.

In fact, Ed Giffin’s involvement with the Federation of Anglers and Hunters came about because of the illness that eventually claimed Jack O’Dette. “We used to sit on a lot of committees together, for fish and wildlife and forest management. He represented the OFAH and I was representing tourist operators. When his health started to go he asked me to attend a meeting of zone F [Eastern Ontario] for the OFAH. He then asked me to finish off the year for him because he was unable to carry on, and that’s how I became active with the OFAH,” Giffin said.

Jack O’Dette was renowned throughout Canada for his conservation work, and was named to the Order of Canada. He died in 2005.

Ed Giffin is now the chair of Zone F of the OFAH and is a member of their board of directors. He was also one of the authors of a comprehensive Mississippi Water Management Plan that was released in 2006, is a charter member of the Conservationists of Frontenac Addington (COFA), and currently sits on the fisheries management committee of the Ministry of Natural Resources that is working on developing fishing regulations for Eastern Ontario. Giffin is also well versed in the Algonquin Land Claim and represents the OFAH and COFA on the stakeholders’ committee, which has been meeting sporadically to be apprised of the direction in which the land claim negotiations are headed.

Ed and Shirley Giffins’ connection to the Mississippi river watershed, and to Crotch Lake, goes back to the days when they were teachers in Kanata. “We used to canoe the Mississippi, and I brought my students on canoe trips to the area. I remember seeing the rundown buildings of a fishing lodge at the end of the bay on Crotch Lake in the distance, never thinking we would end up taking over that business.”

In 1979, the Giffins did just that, and re-named their resort Tumblehome, which is the name for the curved section of a canoe or a sailboat from the widest point to the gunnels. They built up the resort, rebuilt all the cabins with modern conveniences in order to attract families in the summertime in addition to fishing parties, and ran it until a few years ago, when they passed it on to their son Ward, who now operates the lodge.

When they ran the lodge, the Giffins rented canoes and provided advice about routes through the other lakes on the watershed, and Ed provided the perspective of someone who knew not only all the paddling routes on the watershed but the wildlife that lives there as well, to Mississippi Valley Conservation and the Mazinaw Area Fish and Wildlife Committee, among others.

When it came time for North Frontenac Council to provide a recommendation for a member of the Mississippi Valley Source Water Protection Committee, they approached Ed Giffin, but he declined because he already has a number of ongoing commitments, all conservation-related.

While he has avoided direct political involvement over the years, Ed Giffin has always promoted the perspective that economic activities such as forestry, hunting, fishing and camping can be wedded to conservation goals and that there is a deep connection between human beings and the natural world.

“None of us would be here today if we did not have strong hunters and gatherers in our background somewhere along the line. It is part of who we are,” he said.