“From forest to farm and back again” – interviews with Peter Dahl
Peter Dahl has been connected to the Dahl Forest ever since his parents purchased the former farm in the 1950s. In his lifetime, he’s seen the Dahl Forest undergo a renaissance. Tracts of conifers planted by the Dahl family on depleted farmland are maturing, with a mixed-forest understory emerging beneath. Meanwhile, its natural mixed forests, long ago logged for their massive pine, have regenerated.
In 2009, Peter, with his mother Peggy Dahl and sister Nana McKernan, donated their 500-acre property near Gelert to the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust. Peter and his wife Jan now split their time between a private residence in the Dahl Forest, overlooking the Burnt River, and another home in B.C., close to their son.
With its network of trails, the Dahl Forest is a magical nature reserve, a place to hike, snowshoe, birdwatch… or just get a little fresh air and forest therapy.
As the forest regenerates, its wildlife is returning. Fur-bearing creatures like the beaver and martin are back. Wetlands and their unique wildlife are on the rebound, fueled by many creeks and springs, and cradled by new beaver dams. In winter, the tracks of larger mammals like moose, deer and coyote crisscross the forest.
Peter is also keenly aware of the forest’s human history and the kindred spirits it hosts. The artifacts of homesteader families remain, as does evidence of their toil to clear and farm challenging terrain.
And a river runs through it – the majestic Burnt River, connecting this splendid forest to the greater region, watersheds and wildlife.
On a couple of crisp mornings in February, 2025, Peter stoked the woodstove in the Dahl residence next to the Burnt River, and shared memories and his thoughts about the Dahl Forest’s human and natural history.
(Interviews and article by volunteer Ian Kinross)
Part 1: Forest Renaissance
Your family planted more than 100,000 trees on depleted tracts of farmland here. Can you tell us more about this pic of two young tree-planters?
That’s me on the left, with my school friend Bill Szego. Our family lived in Lindsay, and we’d come up to the farm on weekends. In the photo you can see Bill and I seated on a planting machine pulled by a tractor. My dad Eric or a hired hand would have been driving. My dad likely took this photo.
The machine cuts and splits the soil. Bill and I would take turns planting the pine seedlings at intervals measured by a string. The two canted wheels of the machine would then squeeze the soil back together around each new seedling.
Why were the trees planted? Were you ahead of the curve on rewilding?
My Dad’s original intention for planting the trees was to get a cash crop. He was from Sweden, which has a long tradition of managed forests for lumber. In Europe, there was also that mythology about the wild west in North America. He was excited to own a piece of the Canadian wilderness, to have this land as a place to hunt, trap and fish. At the same time, my parents were always open to share the land with others. That idea was also part of his Swedish heritage.
It takes a long time to grow trees for saleable lumber. How did the plans for the Dahl farm change over the years?
Dad lost interest in the lumber cash crop. When we investigated the option further, it wasn’t economically viable. We did do some thinning of the pine plantations but as time went on, we decided to let nature take its course.
Also, for mom, my sister and I, the farm had always been a place to get away to and enjoy. Mom really loved it here. She was born in Guelph and professionally trained as a violinist. She once worked as a music instructor at a girls’ camp in Algonquin Park. I believe that for a city girl, that experience, including the wilderness canoe trips she went on, was important to her love of nature and the outdoors. When my parents were courting, they canoe-tripped extensively. Mom loved the natural world that was part of the Dahl Forest. When my parents divorced in the 1980s, Mom retained ownership of the farm.
Mother nature can be a powerful force over time, if you allow it. What we’ve seen over the years is that the natural forests here are thriving again. That includes some of the hardwood areas as well as the original dominant species of pine returning. In the plantation areas, we’re now seeing some self-thinning of the bigger trees, and a new diverse understory of species like maple, poplar and balsam fir coming up.
How does this affect the wetlands and water courses here?
One of the amazing things is the water table has risen! I’ve recently seen springs pop up in places we’ve never seen before. With an expanded forest canopy and roots, the creeks run longer. The wetland and pond areas are expanding – some large ponds are now small lakes.
What about animal species in the Dahl Forest?
The changes we see here with the forest and wildlife are all connected.
The beavers were trapped around here until about 25 years ago but they’re back now and living in the banks of the Burnt River. We know they’re thriving because we can see beaver families from our window next to the river. They’ve also built at least eight new dams in several of the creek and wetland areas.
Many other creatures of the forest are returning, like mink, fisher and martin. We saw our first martin not too long ago – it caught a squirrel near the house. Moose and deer are prominent here now, along with their predator species including wolves and coyotes.
The change is slow, like the tide. When you see new things, you step back and say: “Wow.” It’s gone from forest to farm and back again.
Why is it important for you to talk about the history of Dahl Forest?
I’m in my mid-70s now. I realize that some of my knowledge – like the location and memories of the homesteads here, and how the place evolved in my lifetime – will be important to share with future generations.
The concept of stewardship is important to me. The oversight and protection of the natural world is ultimately tied to the concept of caring. That means caring for the land, its health, beauty and future. The Dahl Forest now belongs to the community, and its spirit will continue and be cared for.
Mapping the Dahl…
Peter shares a diagram from a detailed ecological report on the Dahl Forest. On the map above, created by Glenside Ecological Services for the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust, you can see some of the reserve’s original natural forests that Peter mentioned. The dark areas shown in the south-east corners of the property, for example, represent mostly natural white and red pine forest, mixed with some red maple and balsam fir. There are also large areas of natural mixed forest comprised of balsam fir, red maple, trembling aspen, basswood, sugar maple, white birch, white spruce and nine other tree species.
The main plantation areas – where the Dahl family planted more than 100,000 conifers – are marked in a lighter colour, such as sections in the central/west area near the main entrance, road and river.
Wetlands shown in the north and south areas of Dahl Forest continue to regenerate with the expanding forest canopy and return of species like the beaver.
Peter throws another log on the fire to keep the place cozy on a crisp winter day. The thermometer showed minus 27C first this morning. But as the sun comes up to break the chill, a few intrepid hikers have already parked near the entrance to the Dahl Forest on Geeza Road. They’re heading out for a winter walk on the forest’s public trails.
Part 2: Kindred Spirits
Indigenous peoples and pioneering homesteaders are part of the human history of the. Dahl Forest. Artifacts signal the presence of indigenous peoples who long ago used the Burnt River as a major travel route. While the homesteaders are long gone, evidence of their toil to farm this rugged land remains.
Peter Dahl was a young boy when his parents purchased the Dahl Forest lands in the 1950s. We asked Peter to share his memories of the Dahl Forest’s human history.
The survey done of Dahl Forest for the land trust showed the remnants of the Strafford homestead in the northwest corner of the property. The Straffords had immigrated from Berkshire, England in the 1870s to accept a “free-grant” farmstead here. What do you remember about this homestead?
The Strafford’s log house still stood when our family purchased the land -- I used to play in there as a kid. There was an attic accessed by a ladder from outside. I recall going up there and seeing old newspapers used for insulation. One of them had a headline about the Czar of Russia, so it must have been placed there around the turn of the century.
Inside, I recall a pump organ – the kind of organ you had to pump your feet to play.
Mr. Strafford had been integral in building the S.S. #6 school that still stands nearby, next to Geeza Road. We know that he was a school trustee and a lay preacher, in addition to farming.
The land trust plaque near the foundation of the old homestead says that the Straffords left for Nebraska in the 1890s, after about 20 years trying to make a go of it. What was life was like for homesteaders like them?
They were given free land -- but the labour to settle it, clear it and farm it was extreme. On all the homesteads here at Dahl Forest, you can see evidence of the human toil to clear stone, for example.
As a kid, I saw these massive stone piles and long stone fences that the homesteaders had built up while clearing their fields for cattle and crops. Some of the bigger stones must weigh a ton or more.
After all of the back-breaking work they put into it, it must have been a terribly hard decision for a family like the Straffords to walk away from their home and farm here. Nebraska would offer them more fertile soil and a better chance.
Let’s continue our tour of your homestead memories. Were there other pioneers in this north-west section of what is now the Dahl Forest?
The Miles homestead was near what’s now the north gate of the Dahl Forest, east of the Staffords. Almost nothing of it remains today.
When I was young, our family came upon a children’s gravesite towards the Miles homestead. I remember a circular picket fence that sat in a field of rolling grass. Some lilacs had been planted in the middle. There were no markers left, but it was clear that it had been used as a burial site. The site used to appear on aerial photographs as a black dot.
Nobody knows which children lie there. We thought it could be children of either the Miles or Stafford families, or both.
Looking back, we know that the many pioneer families lost children to diseases caused by poor nutrition, polluted well water and weather extremes. And doctors were hard to come by. Pioneer life was even tougher when it came to the survival of children.
You mentioned that when your family purchased this land in the 1950s, you would come up from Lindsay and stay in the former homestead of the Bowhey, then Schrader families. This was near the main entrance to today’s Dahl Forest on Geeza Road.
My dad renovated the Schrader house into a recreational cottage when he first purchased the property in 1955. That was our place until the current cottage, which is now our house, was built in 1976 next to the river. The original homestead was demolished by the land trust for safety reasons a few years ago as it was deteriorating badly.
Were the Schraders still farming when your family purchased the property?
Yes, the Schrader family had still been raising some cattle there. The cattle ranged freely around the hills around the river; I remember hearing their bells in the distance. The cattle wintered in the barn near the homestead.
The barn was in good shape, and I played in there as a kid. There were piles of hay and straw and ropes to haul it in. There was an old cutter in there -- a horse-drawn sled for trips to town in winter. And the body of a Ford Model A car. My dad didn’t need the barn, so he had it torn down and kept the utility garage nearby. You can still see the stone foundation of that barn next to one of the Dahl Forest trails.
I see you’ve kept and displayed some of the farming implements from the barn. I’m sure each one has a story to tell.
The cross-cut saw was used to saw logs by hand before they were split. The cow bells were to keep track of the cattle that ranged freely on both sides of the river. The scythe was used to take hay by hand. Looking at the whiffle-tree harness, you can visualize a pair of horses hauling lumber in winter.
You can imagine a totally different world – almost third-world conditions with no electrical power, plumbing or telephone, no cars, and a tremendous effort to survive. The well was about 50 metres from the house, with water carried by bucket.
How did things change for the homesteaders in this area over the years?
Besides the cattle and some crops, they also looked to make some cash selling gravel and wood-cutting.
But it was a hardscrabble life. People needed steady income. Gren Schrader went to work at the CNR as a telegraphist and railway manager. Likewise, most of younger generation around here heard about good jobs elsewhere – I know some of them went to work for GM in Oshawa for example, rather than stay on the farm.
Gren and his son Rob preserved a lot of history about the Dahl Forest and this area and its people. Rob Schrader is a friend of mine and still visits a cabin he owns further along Geeza Road.
Are you aware of any history of indigenous peoples in the area of Dahl Forest?
My understanding is that the Burnt River was a major travel and trade route for indigenous peoples between lakes in the Haliburton area and the Kawarthas. Almost three kilometers of this river runs through the Dahl Forest.
When I was a child, Tommy Hoyle, whose family lived just north of the Dahl farm, gave my dad a stone axe head that he had found near the river.
When Jan and I were canoeing down the Burnt River towards Kinmount, I found a marvelous stone pipe lying on the bottom of the river about a kilometer or two downstream of the Dahl Forest. It was about six inches long, with the bowl canted forward a bit. It likely had washed out of the riverbank; it was a stroke of luck that I found it.
I had it examined at Wilfred Laurier University’s archeology department and a scientist there appraised it as being pre-contact, from the Algonquin culture. The pipe is now in the Haliburton museum.
The stone pipe from Algonquin culture found by Peter Dahl near Dahl Forest. It is part of an exhibit of indigenous artifacts at the Haliburton’s Museum. The ridges in foreground were likely once decorated with brightly coloured inlays, and the bowl of the pipe may have had a wooden figure attached, such as a bird’s head. The museum offers a report by David Beaucage Johnson on the history of indigenous settlement in Haliburton County. You can find it at this link.
Part 3: A River Runs Through it
The Burnt River connects the Dahl Forest to its greater region, watersheds and wildlife. The river has been an important travel route for native peoples, a conduit for the lumber industry, a water source for farms, and a gorgeous recreation route for travellers of yesterday and today. Peter Dahl, whose family donated the Dahl Forest property to the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust in 2009, shares his thoughts and memories of the Burnt River.
How did the Burnt River get its name?
I've been told two versions. One is that it was named by early explorers after a big forest fire that came up the valley. The other, which I prefer, is that the gravel bottom and rocks are a very dark colour; I believe this is due to iron minerals staining the rocks.
You described the Burnt River as a commerce route for the lumbering of Ontario's old-growth pine. Did the original homesteaders in the Dahl Forest participate in selling logs, log-cutting or log-drives?
All of the settlers here, to the best of my knowledge, sold off their pines to logging firms, primarily Mossom Boyd from Bobcaygeon. Logging was winter work for settlers, one of the few opportunities to find a wage income. It was a source of cash in the winter, when there wasn't much else to do for a farmer. Some of the men went to work in logging camps, leaving wives and children to tend to the farm and livestock.
What time of year did the logs go down the Burnt River and where were they milled?
The only possible time to get large logs down the river was the spring flood. Otherwise there just isn't enough water or flow rate to move heavy logs down the stream. There is an old mill downriver in Kinmount. There may have been other mills down the way. I understand that the Boyd operation sent milled logs all the way down to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, where they would be shipped to Europe and England from Montreal or Quebec.
What does the Burnt River mean to you in terms of the natural world?
The river is the focal point of the Dahl Forest. Everything can be related to the it: your distance from it, your altitude above it. All streams at Dahl Forest flow to the river. If you are walking at Dahl Forest, eventually you will be standing by the river.
Nature’s flora and fauna is unique and different along the river. Many plants, animals and birds are found there that won't be found elsewhere. The river is also a place where wildlife drama unfolds, like the time we saw a deer take to the river to escape a group of coyotes. We sometimes watch mink diving off winter ice and coming up with hibernating frogs from the mud below. Beavers are regular visitors making caches of sticks along the banks.
We’ve seen heron, kingfishers and mergansers at the river. A family of merganser ducks swimming with their newly hatched brood is an annual springtime event. As the ducklings begin to mature, they work as a team to chase small fish into the shallows where they're easier to catch. In recent years, we’re seeing Canada Geese with young, so they must be nesting somewhere nearby.
What kind of aquatic life to you see at the river?
As a child I could catch small bass and trout in the Burnt River, but not anymore. The turtles seem to have gone too. On the other hand, I think there are more frogs lately than previous years. Hopefully they will lure more predators. The riverbed is almost all gravel and stone, so not much plant life grows there, making it challenging for aquatic creatures. Certainly, the ducks are catching minnows there.
How did the homesteaders operate with a large river snaking through their farm? There must have been benefits as well as challenges.
Crossing the river varies with the seasons, and it would have been a challenge at times. Crossing is almost impossible during spring flood or when ice is too thin. In summertime, however, it's easy -- there are a few fording places where it is only a couple of feet deep and can be easily waded by people or livestock. Keep in mind that work was done in those days with horses. Horses can cross the river more easily than a farm tractor can today.
The rocky nature of the river and its swift current in places makes boat navigation almost impossible. In my youth, the river would freeze over completely. The ice cover, where the flow was relatively slow, would be plenty safe enough for crossing back and forth. We have seen a bull moose standing on the ice where we wouldn’t dare go. So, horses would probably have been used as well for hauling firewood across the river in winter.
I don't know when the bridge below Geeza Road was built. Once it existed, there was no problem getting across to the south part of the property. We crossed all the time with the tractor during tree planting season. Fording was almost as easy at the north end of the property.
In the previous interview, you indicated the Burnt River was a major travel route for indigenous peoples. Then along came the timber barons and the logging of pine. The train to Haliburton followed the river in many spots. If we fast-forward to today -- how do you see the role of the Burnt River from your vantage point overlooking its waters. Is it used for recreation? What about watershed management?
The river, all the way from Canning Lake down to Three Brothers Falls, is similar in nature to the section that runs through Dahl Forest. It has alternating shallow gravel flats and deeper sections where it moves more slowly, interspersed by rock-strewn fast water. In this section it is navigable only by canoe or kayak.
Just above Three Brothers Falls, it is joined by the Irondale River. After the falls, the nature of the river changes dramatically. It becomes deep and slow, with swampy areas forming lagoons and ox bows down to Kinmount and beyond. Below the falls, there are cottages with motorboats.
So, it's a lovely canoe trip from Haliburton village by canoe down to Kinmount. We see people canoeing and kayaking in the summer, but not as many as I would expect for such a wild and natural river so close to developed cottage country.
Like most watersheds in Haliburton County, authorities control dams that restrict water flow to the south. Their dilemma is to balance lake water levels for cottagers and residents in the county with the needs for flow in the Trent-Severn canal system and Kawartha lakes. It’s hard to please both constituencies, especially in dry summers.
You and Jan have taken many journeys in North America, including a time when you lived in the high arctic. Can you tell us more about the canoe journeys you and Jan took along the Burnt River to Kinmount?
It takes about four hours to paddle from Dahl Forest to Kinmount, which makes a lovely summer day with a picnic along the way. We have also camped overnight at one of the 2 or 3 camping spots downstream of Dahl Forest.
The river passes through mostly wilderness downstream to Three Brothers Falls. It’s somewhat challenging at spots along the way due to shallow flats and rocky fast water areas. I would not recommend taking a high-end canoe; you’re certain to bash a few rocks along the way. However, because the current moves you along, it’s fairly effortless. When you reach the falls, you must portage around them, of course. They’re an impressive torrent with three substantial waterfalls.
As you continue downstream of the falls it is a pleasant and scenic trip to Kinmount, where you can buy an ice cream cone to top off your journey.
There is a bridge over the river near the Dahl residence. What is its origin?
Anyone who has paddled down the Burnt River in the past 45 years or so will have passed under the pedestrian bridge below the house. Since Dahl Forest is divided almost equally by the Burnt River, the bridge is the only access to half the property at many times of the year. The bridge is used by the Land Trust or the Dahl family only and is closed to the public.
The bridge was designed by a friend of mine who was a transmission line engineer with Ontario Hydro. He specified the cables and anchors, and the materials were purchased from Hydro. Technically, it's a simple suspension bridge, consisting of a deck sitting on twin cables.
It was built shortly after the house was constructed and originally made with cedar posts to support the cables and structure. It was re-built in 2001 using concrete-based steel supports that were welded at a high school in Belleville, where a good friend was a teacher.
It's the only bridge between Milburn Road and Kinmount, a distance of about 15 km.
Peter Dahl took time to share his memories of the Dahl’s forest’s regeneration, human history and place along the Burnt River in a series of interviews in February and March 2025. Thank you Peter!