What We Can Learn From the Cheltenham Badlands

The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio)

The Cheltenham Badlands are an alien landscape in Caledon, Ontario, once home of the Mississaugas of the Credit. Chief Ajetance was forced to sign Treaty 19 which ceded much of their traditional territory to the Crown and opened it to settlement. Colonists accidentally created this unique wasteland through tree clearing and bad farming practices. There was only a thin layer of soil over the Queenston Shale formation, a soft sedimentary rock that runs through Peel and Halton Regions. As news of this alien landscape spread, the footsteps of thousands of visitors hastened the erosion. The Ontario Heritage Trust is now preserving this reminder of how human actions can profoundly change the planet.

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