Roots to Harvest seeks new location as development planned for Algoma St. site

A Thunder Bay urban agriculture group has announced it will have to uproot itselfthis fall.

Roots To Harvest has been using the site at the corner of Algoma Street and Cornwall Avenue for almost a decade at no cost, thanks to an agreement with the owners of the property, said Erin Beagle, the group's executive director.

The property owners now want to develop the site, she said, necessitating the move.

"We've been there and [been] allowed to establish over those nine years out of their generosity and out of always knowing the situation," she told CBC News on Monday, adding that the group has always known the use of the site was temporary.

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Over those nine years, the group has been busy developing the property with the help of teens in the city, including cultivating a number of perennials and vegetable gardens, as well as maintaining greenhouses. Beagle said the group also has infrastructure to raise rabbits and bees.

"There's so many mixed feelings happening right now for everybody," she said. "We really feel at home and attached to that spot, but organizationally, we're in a really good spot [to complete the move]."

There's so many mixed feelings happening right now for everybody- Erin Beagle, executive director of Roots To Harvest

The group made the announcement over the weekend on its Facebook page, stressing the fact that, while there are mixed emotions, the group harbours no ill-will at having to move.

"There is no bad guy here. It's not a case of paving paradise that's not the story," the statement read. "The story is how neighbourhoods grow and change and evolve."

Busy fall ahead

While Roots To Harvest also runs another site at the Volunteer Pool property on Martha Street, Beagle said the group will seek another location to serve as its main plot, and centre for youth programming preferably on the city's north side as it's where the core of the group's activities are located.

That will require a large-scale move, she said, including taking apart and transporting all structures on-site and even digging up and storing the soil that's been used to grow their crops.

"We'll take things apart and we'll load them up on a flatbed and we'll move them where they need to go," she said.

As for the move and finding a new site, Beagle said it's better to do that at this time of year.

"It's at the end of our season, we have all winter to plan for this," she said. "We don't have to be scrambling to run our programs, so we feel confident that program-wise, nothing needs to stop."

The group plans to be off the Algoma Street property by the end of October, she said.