Cruickston Charitable Research Reserve (CCRR) is a 370 hectare (913 acre) property that exists as a charitable organization. The goal of CCRR is to preserve the land base in perpetuity by converting its functions from farming to research, education, conservation and most importantly - ecological restoration. CCRR wants to be an active promoter of research in these fields. The goal of CCRR is to supply land and other types of infrastructure that supports research on conservation biology, ecosystem ecology, community ecology, restoration ecology, natural history, and any other branch of science or the arts that supports the premise that knowledge about the structure and function of ecosystems is essential if we want human damage to the earth to be reversed.

The purpose of this document is to summarize how CCRR will promote research. Currently, CCRR is not empowered to fund the researchers directly, but rather will provide access to land, services, accommodation, and the media. The hope of CCRR is that CCRR will develop an international reputation as a location to conduct research in ecological restoration and that corporate sponsorship will grow to the point that the research itself can be supported with funding.

What is research?

The word ‘research’ is poorly understood by the public and it is the opinion of CCRR, that the meaning of the word must be specifically indicated here. This text is an updated version of similar text found in Cruickston Park - into the future (2002). Copies of this document are available from CCRR.

Research is any investigative activity that is carried out by a person or a group, with the goal of discovering something new, at least to them. Research can be conducted on existing published information, or can be conducted by making new observations. Research is not the same as training or education. These latter two activities involve the learning of information already obtained by someone else. Research cannot be learned - it must be conducted.

Research has not been completed (i,e, it does not exist) until and unless it has been published. If someone says, " I've done some research on...", the listener is permitted to ask for the proof of the existence of this research. Such proof only exists in peer-reviewed published documents. Research that is not published is considered "in progress" but is not considered to be completed. We understand that individual persons or companies may conduct research for their own curiosity or benefit and they may even produce in-house documentation of this research. CCRR, however, is only in a position to sponsor research that will enter the international public domain and is therefore not willing to promote research of a propriety or personal nature.

Peer reviewed publications include a large collection of international journals, books, government reports (sometimes peer-reviewed), CD-ROM's, web-sites, films, drawings, maps.

Those who receive the products of research, must be convinced that the work was done under no conflict of interest. That is, the audience must believe that the research worker did not try to obtain a particular result that benefits them or their workplace. Hence, research conducted by the profit-oriented private sector is rejected universally as being fundamentally biased. It must be considered biased because the sponsor of the research wishes to make a profit from its execution.

Accordingly, there are very few agencies or groups who can be considered independent enough to conduct unbiased research. The list includes Government laboratories, privately and philanthropically-endowed research institutions, and Universities. Government laboratories do not regularly encourage their research workers to try to publish their results in the peer-reviewed press. Also, Government laboratories can easily be controlled by politicians. Hence, only endowed research institutions and Universities are well-positioned in the western world, to conduct research. Despite this CCRR specifically invites donations from private sector companies and firms to the charitable organization in order to support the research enterprise. It is in everyone’s collective self-interest to have as much basic research done as possible in the area of conservation and restoration ecology.

The fundamental difference between high schools and universities, is that Universities are knowledge factories whose business is to make new discoveries in every field of inquiry, and without fear of dismissal for those discoveries (hence the function of tenure). Teaching students about this process of gaining new knowledge or interpretations of the way the world works, is also an important function of universities, but the teaching itself is little-different from that conducted at other teaching institutions.

Why research is important?

Research permits the process of natural selection to apply to ideas. It allows ideas to be tested in a critical and unbiased fashion, and allows the bad (or less fit) ideas to die while permitting the good ideas to flourish. Research has grown explosively since the invention of the printing press, because that invention permitted the manufacturing of text that could be guaranteed to be identical to different readers. Up until 1495, each copy of each work could (and was) edited by scribes on an individual basis.

Since 1900, research has been a major activity of universities because these institutions give the greatest freedom possible to investigators. Research is the foundation of everything that we currently value in society. Everything.

Why is conservation and restoration ecology important?

Research workers for 50 years have noted the rapid rate of global extinction of species, and the loss of habitat supporting those species that survive. David Quammen (1998) concludes that the human impact on the biodiversity of the planet will represent (when it is finished) the single largest episode of mass-extinction that the planet has ever seen. Other workers have noted that the earth's ecosystems interact with each other in a way that is not in steady-state. There is no balance of nature. Instead, there is constant warfare among taxa and the instability of the atmosphere, of soils, of climate etc. is an example of the kinds of fluctuations that occur normally. Except that the magnitude of the changes, and their period (duration) as well, are truly exceptional. A recent paper in Bioscience (Sanderson et al. 2002. The human footprint and the last of the wild. Bioscience 52, 891-904) shows that 83% of the planet’s terrestrial surface has been directly or indirectly used to support humans. No other species in history has changed so fully the very environment that it depends upon.

Put the argument another way: humans have been able to adapt to and therefore avoid all constraints on their individual health and population size except one: their own success. We may well be (as a species) at the beginning of "the big crumble" wherein the entire planet's functional infrastructure begins to slowly decay to the point where our own species suffers irreversible increases in morbidity and mortality. We may be unable to avoid our own success as a species, and may suffer from it.

Conservation biology and restoration ecology are disciplines rooted in this knowledge, and whose goals are to discover the structural and functional features of the planet, to try to maintain all components of structure and function as they are now (conservation) or to try to repair them to an earlier condition (restoration) as best we can. Conservation biology and restoration ecology both advocate the view that humans should minimize their functional 'footprint' on the planet so that an 'earth' can exist that is beautiful, productive, and self-maintaining.

Conservation biology and restoration ecology represent the bulk of the hope for a future world that people will want to live in. Both disciplines must be based in science, and in scientific research, because otherwise, practitioners of conservation and restoration will simply protect "what they want" and rebuild "what they can".

Why should the research be conducted at Cruickston?

Cruickston is ideally suited to conduct research in conservation and restoration. First, the property is large and has been under the control of a small number of owners since land clearing. Second, the property sits within the northern limit of the Carolinian forest zone of North America, and therefore is within the biological zone with the greatest biodiversity in Canada. This biodiversity is currently threatened by urban, agricultural, and industrial expansion. Third, the property includes a wide variety of habitat types and at least one parcel of old-growth deciduous forest. Fourth, the agricultural lands at Cruickston offer themselves as sites that could be used to develop a scientific basis for restoration ecology for streams, shorelines, alvars, cliffs and forests. Fifth, and most importantly, the current owners of the property want all this to happen while also using the property to explain these activities to the public at large.

Why should one sponsor research at Cruickston Charitable Research Reserve?

There are no other properties such as Cruickston in Southern Ontario. In fact, we are not aware of a single private landowner in the entire Province who has set aside a piece of valuable land specifically for the purpose of supporting research and education in conservation biology and restoration ecology. Any donor to the Cruickston Charitable Research Reserve will be making a contribution to:

• research results that can be made available internationally.
• education at all levels from elementary schools to post-secondary. Such education adds value to the knowledge-based economy. Cruickston can help to reverse the brain drain, which is a real phenomenon in the fields of ecology and environmental science.
• actual conservation. Quite aside from the issue of the research, the activities at Cruickston can be used to increase the public discussion of the need (and mechanisms) to achieve conservation and effective restoration of habitats and species.
• the economy. Research workers traditionally have small salaries, but they are large consumers of field and laboratory equipment. The building up of research infrastructure will permit local companies to benefit from the local activities.
• their own marketing, and/or tax write-offs. Any involvement by sponsors can be used by them to advance their corporate image, or to save tax dollars.
• the aesthetic value of the property as an example of what Southern Ontario once looked like.

The map to the right shows the landmass of CCRR (please click on the map for an enlarged view). All properties outlined in green and with the letter R included within the green, are properties that have been heavily exploited in agriculture over the past 140 years and therefore are the properties that CCRR will permit to be used in research. Parcels of land with plus signs are those with the highest priority for restoration. Some of the properties labelled with ‘R’s have been targeted as land that will actually be restored, as opposed to be used for experimentation. So shorter term experiments should be place on those properties.

The lands available for use include flood plain, riparian forest, upland alvar forest, upland deciduous forests, conifer plantations, wetlands and agricultural fields.

Permission given by CCRR to use the land does not influence the requirement to seek other permissions from other agencies such as the Grand River Conservation Authority or the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Applications for access to the land must not exceed 5 pages single-spaced text, must be printed on white 8.5" x 11" paper, using no less than 10 cpi. To be consistent with the goals of CCRR listed on page 1, CCRR will support researchers who wish to establish long-term field studies or experiments related to ecology, conservation or restoration. The application must follow the following format:

1. Title: 1 line.
2. Statement of the general problem that the research is addressing. No more than one page.
3. Explicitly worded research question and attendant null and alternate hypotheses. No more than one-half page.
4. Method (2 pages for all of a-d):
   1. experimental design including issues of replication and randomization.
   2. logistics of land use including a map showing the areas requested for use.
   3. logistics of running the study
   4. duration of the study and plan for ending the study
5. Expected results (one half page) and plan for the dissemination of the results to the scientific and lay audience (one-half page).
6. references: no more than one-half page.

All applications will be subjected to peer review. Applicants may suggest two reviewers but a total of four may be used to assess each proposal. Applicants will receive reviewers comments. Applications that are declined may be resubmitted if the research proposal is suitably modified to deal with the comments of the reviewers. All proposals that involve the introduction of alien or invasive species into the land or water must indicate how the researchers will prevent these species from expanding outside of the experimental areas. Any worker planning to use biocide materials, must indicate the level of persistence of the biocide agent, and must also indicate how lateral or vertical movement of the biocide will be controlled.

CCRR will require that each applicant show proof of liability insurance from their home institution before work can proceed. CCRR will not be responsible for natural or anthropogenic disturbance to the experiment. Researchers will be asked to sign a Waiver of Liability Form to confirm they are entering the lands at their own risk.

All press releases that researchers plan to distribute to the press must be given prior approval by CCRR. CCRR must ensure that it has the ability to influence the public’s interpretation of the activities that take place at Cruickston.

Researchers are expected to submit papers to mainstream peer-reviewed scientific or technical press. The researchers are also expected to prepare press releases and other publications, CDs or tape recordings that can be used in the mass media (subject to review by CCRR as indicated above).

It is the intention of CCRR to eventually provide laboratory and living space for a small number of research workers at the site. For the time being, there will be space provided only for the storage of small pieces of equipment.

It is the intention of CCRR to facilitate the formation of contacts between research workers and agencies or groups that might wish to supply research funds to projects carried out at Cruickston.

The infrastructure is not yet in place to form these links, but researchers should keep in close contact with CCRR in order to permit these links to grow.