Trail Signs in Wellington
Wellington Federation of Agriculture (WFA) has previously worked with Farm and Food Care Ontario to design and produce a set of 5 informative signs to be placed on trail systems in order to promote education about agriculture in general to trail goers. WFA provided these signs as well as the metal stands to trail groups at a subsidized cost and the demand was overwhelming as this has turned into the perfect physically distant learning activity for families.
Expansion plans include information signs in multiple places such as information kiosks, welcome centres, and County trail systems that do not have an organized trail group
WFA is producing 40 of these UV-protected aluminum panel signs, offering sets of 5 at no cost to all of our 7 lower-tier municipalities, plus the upper tier (Wellington County) for their economic development departments or rec departments to install wherever they see fit.
WFA has fostered an exceptional relationship with these Ec/Dev departments and has a seat on the County Ec/Dev Committee. The County operates an exceptional museum near Fergus and is the location of our Wellington County Agriculture Wall of Fame, and this would be a perfect location for a set Museum and Archives – Wellington County.
The content of these signs varies, with messaging touching on the categories of health + wellness, local food promotion, or environmental stewardship. Promotions will include social media; Twitter, Facebook and the WFA webpage. As well, we will be planning newspaper photo opportunities when the signs are placed. The results and acknowledgements will also be included in our annual newsletter.
The signs in this project will be UV protected and have a long lifespan, providing a wide reach to Wellington County’s population, which is currently 90,930 (2016 census) is forecasted to grow by 60% in the next 30 years. This will allow a process of telling agriculture’s good news stories to the wider public in a natural setting.