I own a 50-acre forest south of Williamsford and I’m trying to make it as worthless as I can. You may ask, “Why would you do that, Bob?” It turns out that the value of my property is measured in what you could strip from it. As a result, I’m in the process of selling those rights immediately. I’m selling the rights to strip it of all its lumber; dig and remove all of its gravel which is substantial; and strip it of all its commercially wanted leeks and plants. When exploited, there will be nothing left.

There is one catch to this money-making racket. The company that I’m donating (effectively selling) these rights to, is a Conservation group who plans on enforcing and holding these legal rights and will make sure future owners (including myself) never violate the rights that were sold to them.

Although this should provide the protection I want, I find it annoying that our capitalist system doesn’t seem to have a way of either describing or valuing the inherent worth of the property. That worth being that it is a living healthy natural forest. This “worthless” feature should have far more value than what I’m “giving away”, but alas, gravel for roads and lumber for houses appear to be more important and are worthy reasons to turn it into a stripped hole in the ground.

Bob Hope, Owen Sound