Birthday gift for Trent

On the occasion of her 89th birthday, Marjorie Oliver of Bobcaygeon gave Trent a very special birthday gift -- her family's farm. To be named the James McLean Oliver Ecological Centre, the 270-acre property has a farm house and cottage along with 2,000 feet of shoreline on Pigeon Lake, pastures, a wood lot and a marsh.

The property is "unique," according to Prof. Tom Hutchinson of Environmental and Resource Studies. It includes extensive wetlands, woodlands and acres of fields in various stages of revegetation. It will be developed for research, graduate education and undergraduate classes by biologists, geographers, chemists, modellers and environmental scientists. It will be part of a network monitoring the aquatic and terrestrial environments and for long-term experiments of up to 50 years in length.

The property has been in the Oliver family since 1864. The house was built in 1903 and three years later it became a fishing lodge, known as Lakeview Farm.

Miss Oliver has been thinking about this gift for the last 10 years. "I wanted to do the right thing. My parents worked very hard and always loved the property. I didn't want to see it broken up and sold off in lots. I think my father would be proud of the farm's new future. I am so pleased to see how happy and interested the professors are at using the farm for environmental research."