Hastings Highlands hears from BASC on Wood Festival

October 1, 2026

By Michael Riley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Municipality of Hastings Highlands heard from Steve Wilkins with the Bancroft Area Stewardship Council regarding holding a Wood Festival at Loggers Field in Maynooth during the third week of August next year. Wilkins is the past chair of the BASC and is a retired MNRF manager with a background in forestry and fire fighting with extensive experience in resource stewardship.

The BASC is an incorporated not for profit organization committed to engaging, educating and empowering the communities in our area through management, protection and preservation of our environment. For more information, go to www.bancroftstewarship.ca.

Mayor Tony Fitzgerald welcomed Wilkins at the Sept. 16 meeting and Wilkins told council that he was there with the BASC’s current Chair Ian Hendry, Bruce Krauss, and one of the organization’s Directors Bonny McCleery Scanlan to talk about the proposed wood festival for Maynooth at Loggers’ Field next summer. Councillor Keith Buck, who is a co-chair with BASC, recused himself from the delegation and discussion to adhere to conflict of interest bylaws.

Wilkins said that a lot of folks remember the old Loggers’ Games that used to take place and he was there that day to talk about starting another Wood Festival to take its place.

“We’ve got a working group going right now, a very exciting working group with local stakeholders, the stewardship council, the Algonquins, the Bancroft Minden Forest Company, and the Bancroft Area Forest Industry Association as well as Trent University that are planning and trying to figure out how we can do the best possible festival for us here in Maynooth. Each of those constituents in that working group have already committed to their resources to help out with this so that’s encouraging for all of us in the working group,” he says.

Wilkins said that the history with Hastings Highlands and the BASC was long and glorious; back in 1995 to 2000, the stewardship council actually paid for part of the purchase price of the property [Loggers Field] so they have a vested interest in the property.

He said they did the Garlic Festival together back from 2017 to 2019 and that there’d been a lot of coordination around the boat launches and they helped with all the jurisdictions taking place and all the complications and he said anecdotally that council was probably head of the pin in the province when it comes to dealing with boat launches. He said that last year they had the Great Lakes Local Action Fund, which was a push from Hastings Highlands and that the BASC was there with the trees and that Watersheds Canada was there to do a good PowerPoint presentation on the nuts and bolts of planting trees, and he said it all went extremely well overall.

“Now, we’re looking into this Wood Festival, and we hope that’s a continuation of the relationship between our two parties. So the Wood Festival, what’s it all about? Well, it’s all about wood; it’s about the exploration of wood, it’s about wood carvers, it’s about the forest industry, it’s about wood stoves, it’s about anything and anybody that wants to bring their value and their industry and their wares to the Loggers’ Field. So that’s what we’re proposing. The goals of the Wood Festival are certainly economic development, but it’s also about forest heritage. For me personally, I’m really excited about trying to pass on the forest heritage piece that we’ve got here, it’s a secret industry. When we first started the BASC, we went to Municipal Affairs and we said ‘what’s the main industry for the Bancroft area?’ and you know what they gave us then? Car parts. Because Price Ford, Vance Motors, Carquest, they were all the visual industries. But nobody talked about the secret lifeblood industry in Bancroft, which is the forest industry. So we would love nothing more than to have parts of the Loggers’ Games at this Wood Festival. Wasn’t it awesome when we used to have the logging trucks come in with all their nice loads and we gave them awards. We had people felling logs to try to hit the post they put in the ground. The old crosscut competition. So those kinds of things were legacies that were really good things and we want to bring those back if we can,” he says.

So that day was really just a simple ask, according to Wilkins, and he said the BASC wanted council’s blessing continue with the planning so that the Loggers’ Field would be available to them in the third week of August of next year, and he said with this request, they’re ready to help out in any way that they can.

“So basically that’s why we’re here today. We would love your blessing for our planning and to move forward and use the field for the Wood Festival in 2027. You would be the landowners, we would be the tenants, and we would hope that this would continue on for who knows how long? That’s the challenge, isn’t it? If we do this, it would be nice to have infrastructure in place to keep it going year after year,” he says.

Fitzgerald thanked Wilkins for his presentation and asked if there were any questions from council.

Fitzgerald has a query about the exact time slated for the new festival, and Wilkins replied that it would just be one day in late August, but could expand if it gets really successful.

“[At that point] we’d have to start talking about putting people up at night and lots of economic development there, and we could move into a two day [event]. But it would start out as a one day event,” he says.

Fitzgerald replied that that sounded reasonable and commented on partnerships.

“I’m proud of the council we have and we really expanded our idea of working with people. Traditionally there’s been some pushback; I don’t know why and I don’t care. But we’ve made a point of working with our partners, our lake associations, the inter-lakes group, the BASC, and you mentioned a few of them. That shoreline workshop we had was incredibly popular and successful, but we can’t do it all ourselves. We are limited in what we can do so we need the help of these groups and people like the volunteers who are the grassroots. That’s how these things happen and that’s how they generally stay,” he says.

Fitzgerald said that they certainly hope they can get something happening here with this new festival, and that they’ll always look at risk management liability, but those are bridges they cross all the time and hopefully they can do that, and that they hope that their long history of working with BASC continues.

Deputy Mayor Tammy Davis said it was very exciting and very refreshing and that it’s something they need to have a discussion about to see how they can facilitate it. She then showed council her fish purse, which she procured at the last Loggers’ Games and said it was near and dear to her heart.

“So I appreciate you taking the time and coming to present to us and I really think this is something we can back and discuss as a council to move forward with,” she says.

Councillor Roger Davis and Councillor Tracy Hagar also thought it was a wonderful idea and that council should endeavor to help make it happen, with Hagar further suggesting encouraging younger people to get involved to get this off the ground as well. Wilkins replied that they’d already talked to the high school and that Freymond Lumber was also ready to help out with materials.

“So we’ve started that outreach and we’ll continue,” he says.

Fitzgerald told The Bancroft Times that the BASC is a long-time partner of Hastings Highlands.

“We appreciate their efforts to improve our community, and we look forward to continuing to build on our relationship through the creation of a Wood Festival next year,” he says.

McCleery Scanlan told The Bancroft Times that the delegation went very well and that Wilkins has a long history with BASC and highlighted the past partnerships on events.

“The municipal council all expressed their interest and reference to the 30 years that the Loggers’ Games took place that we all remember and thoroughly enjoyed. Steve stressed that BASC was there to support the entire event to prepare getting the field, arches and entry boards that highlight Loggers’ Field and BASC and whatever needed to be done,” she says.