Rye on the Rocks

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm, VHS.
"This film tells the story of Inco's efforts to reclaim the mill tailings of the Sudbury area in the 1950s and 1960s. The make-up and formation of the tailings is explained, as are early attempts and failures in their reclamation. Clare Young, head of the company's agricultural department and the man in charge of the project, is introduced and narrates the balance of the film. He tells of various temporary and inadequate solutions and introduces Tom Peters whose job it was to find a permanent one. Footage shows experiments with weeds, Japanese Bamboo, twitchgrass, mosses, grass, flowers, and hydroponics; seeding and plowing the tailings; and a harvest of winter rye which now covers the rocky tailings."