Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Science of Summer: Learning how new trees may help an old forest

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, July 2, 2019

Postmedia’s series on the Science of Summer goes for a walk in the woods today as Tom Spears asks how a research forest in Petawawa is looking south for new ways to resist the heat.

Future forests could still look like today’s forests as the climate warms, but they may need a new set of genes.

Genetically, a pine tree in Ottawa is different from one in Pennsylvania. Each has adapted over time to its local climate.

And as the Ottawa Valley warms — especially as summers become hotter and drier — those southern pines may be the kind we need.

Then again, we might need to plant different tree species entirely. A third possibility: we can stay mainly with the trees we have now.

With all of these possible futures in the cards, Canada’s foresters are starting a long-term experiment at the Petawawa Research Forest, testing various methods of adapting to climate change before it’s too late.

Will it be business as usual on Smiths Falls' water treatment plant proposal?

By Laurie Weir, InsideOttawaValley, July 4, 2019

What will happen to the Smiths Falls' water treatment plant project now that Bruce Linton is no longer with Canopy Growth?

The former co-CEO stepped down from the position at the cannabis plant on Wednesday, July 3, just 10 days after he was a delegation at the Smiths Falls town council touting big plans for the old water treatment plant, which includes a hotel/office/conference centre space.

First Place Plastic Welding puts repair ahead of recycle

By Barbara Leitimiemi, The Review, July 2, 2019

The oft-cited three Rs of reduce, reuse, and recycle overlook an important fourth possibility: repair. First Place Plastic Welding of Green Valley repairs a variety of plastic items that otherwise might be tossed in the garbage or recycle bin.

“If it’s made of thermoplastic, I can fix it,” says owner George Clarke. Clarke, who operates First Place with his son, Leo, has been repairing plastics for over 30 years. People often replace broken plastic items, Clarke says, not realizing they can be repaired with less expense.

Plastic welding is similar in principle to TIG or acetylene welding. Using high temperatures and a plastic rod, Clarke repairs cracks in plastic components, or splices in larger pieces to repair holes.

UCPR council learns about turning trash into fuel

By James Morgan, The Review, July 2, 2019

magine fueling your truck with garbage. A Nova Scotia-based company is turning garbage into fuel products, and representatives of it shared their vision with United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR) council on June 26.

UCPR Chief Administrative Officer Stéphane Parisien and Chief of Staff Justin Bromberg discovered Sustane Technologies at the recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) convention in Quebec City and decided to invite its representatives to make a presentation to council. Other municipal councillors and staff from UCPR municipalities also attended the presentation.

Sustane Vice President of Sales and Government Relations Kevin Cameron said many other technologies to reprocess waste are unaffordable and need large government subsidies to operate.

OC TRANSPO: Now free for seniors on Sundays

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun, July 3, 2019

Mayor Jim Watson says spending $100,000 annually to give seniors free public transit on Sundays is worth it because it will give those residents another opportunity to get out of their homes.

“There’s a real problem I see every day when I visit malls or seniors homes (that is) an isolation challenge,” Watson said Wednesday at the Billings Bridge transit station, announcing that the first free Sunday for seniors will be this weekend.

“If we can make it easier for seniors to go out and socialize, whether it’s a walking club here at Billings Bridge or a seniors club in Kanata, that’s good for society as a whole and it keeps seniors healthier.”

New Gatineau garbage rules won't kick in until September

By CBC News Ottawa, July 3, 2019

Gatineau council has decided residents won't have to stick to its new garbage limit until September 15.

The change was originally going to come into effect July 15.

• Gatineau approves new rules around garbage pickup, apartment composting
• Gatineau garbage rules could be adjusted again

Every two weeks, residents will be able to dispose of 120-litres of garbage for free in grey bins distributed by the city.

Pinder: Why Ottawa needs a publicly funded bike-share service

By Matt Pinder, Ottawa Citizen, July 2, 2019

I’ve lived car-free for nearly five years now. First in Hamilton, then Toronto, and now Ottawa. From my family who live in smaller communities in Ontario, I receive occasional words of sympathy for my apparent lack of mobility. But the truth is, I’ve never been happier with how I get around. Each of these cities has offered me a broad range of options for meeting my daily needs: walkable neighbourhoods, blossoming cycling networks, frequent and reliable public transit, and plentiful car-share vehicles.

But there’s something Ottawa is now missing, and it’s left a void in my transportation options: a bike-share system. For the past four years, I’m told, Ottawa has been serviced by a small but helpful private bike-share system. This year, my first summer in Ottawa, that system has packed up and left.

What is likely seen by many as a novelty is a significant loss of mobility for me. You see, even though I have a bicycle (and I use it a lot), over the past four years in Hamilton and Toronto, I’ve come to heavily rely on bike share as one of my top ways of getting around.

Denley: Changes to city water bills should make us pay more attention

By Randall Denley, Ottawa Citizen, July 2, 2019

There is a certain irony in the fact that the City of Ottawa is getting consumer complaints about its new water bills and the higher charges that come with them. For years, the city water department produced big annual rate increases and floundering budget performance, but the public was largely oblivious. Now, the city has finally rationalized the way it charges for water and people are complaining.

Historically, the city’s water department has been its own worst enemy. The city continually urged people to use less water while seeming to forget that it was in the water-selling business. Water-conscious Ottawans used less than the city estimated most years, reducing expected revenue and creating deficits, which in turn led to a mounting water and sewer debt. The city continually increased water rates in an attempt to make the service sustainable, but as rates rose, usage continued to decline. Something had to be done to break this non-virtuous circle.

(...)The new water bill is pretty simple in concept, although the city spent a surprising $100,000 to explain it to the public. There is a repair and maintenance cost to have water and sewer connections to our homes, no matter how little water we use. Having a fixed cost for part of the bill is in line with how power and gas utilities charge their customers.

The new bill is not good for water misers. Those fixed charges amount to nearly $400 a year, even if you don’t use a drop of water. That charge could go a lot higher, too. The new billing regime recovers 20 per cent of water and sewer costs from fixed charges, but city council has already approved doubling that if required.

Science of summer: How many trees does it take to cool a city?

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, July 4, 2019

Postmedia’s popular Science of Summer series is back, in its usual on-again, off-again way. Today Tom Spears looks at new findings about how trees cool cities.

One summer day Carly Ziter hopped on her bicycle and set off to calculate how many trees it takes to cool down a city.

Cities form “heat islands” — zones where the temperature is higher than in the surrounding countryside because of all that asphalt and concrete. Trees help reduce the heat island effect. That much is old news.

But how many trees are enough?

Ziter, who teaches biology at Concordia University, was a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when she began this work, back in 2016. She and her helpers loaded up their bikes with small, battery-powered mobile weather stations and pedalled around the city.

Safe cycling and distracted driving focus for police in July

By StittsvilleCentral, June 29, 2019

The Ottawa Police Service’s Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) will focus on cycling safety and distracted driving during the month of July.

Cycling Safety — Between 2013 and 2017, there were 1,460 collisions involving cyclists with 1,281 injuries and 8 fatalities.

Distracted Driving — Between 2013 and 2017, there were 31,344 collisions resulting in 8,944 injuries and 28 fatalities.

The Safer Roads Ottawa Program is a leading community partnership between Ottawa Fire Services, Ottawa Paramedic Service, Ottawa Police Service, Ottawa Public Health and the Transportation Services Department committed to preventing or eliminating road deaths and serious injuries for all people in the City of Ottawa, through culture change, community engagement, and development of a sustainable safe transportation environment.

Today's letters: Talking about trash, the Mark Norman settlement, OSAP

By Lesley Brown and others, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, June 29, 2019

Trash-bag limit would be open to abuse

Re: All options being considered to keep trash out of the municipal dump as council digs into garbage policy, June 26.

I’m a board member of a large townhouse condominium complex. Our garbage goes on large communal pads for pickup by the city. There is no way to police who puts what where, and we already have problems with household waste put out on the wrong week, as well as improper recycling. The private citizens of the condo bear the cost to keep on top of these matters.

If a bag limit is imposed on everyone, piles of garbage would be left on-site once the limit had been loaded in the trucks, leaving the condo with no route of disposal. Waiving residential setups such as ours from a bag limit would result in non-resident dumping on our property.

(...)How about a wider strategy?

I am glad to see the city moving forward to update its solid waste master plan but disappointed that there doesn’t seem to be any attention paid to discussion of strategies:

• to get better compliance from owners and residents in multi-dwelling and commercial high-rise buildings, which appear largely resistant to recycling and other waste management practices;

Solar-powered Alberta town becomes 'net zero' community

By Bob Weber, the National Observer, June 28, 2019

What began as a friendly rivalry between two southern Alberta towns has ended with what may be one of the most extensive programs of solar power anywhere in the country.

Raymond, an agricultural community of about 4,000, has operated nine municipal buildings and all of its street lights by the sun since last fall. It sells excess solar power to the electrical grid when it can and buys it back when it needs to.

It all started in 2017 when town council heard the nearby community of Cardston was planning a solar project. That rankled a bit, said Greg Robinson, Raymond's economic development co-ordinator.

"We have a bit of a competitive rivalry," he laughs. "We just wanted to do better than them."

And so they have.

Raymond has become what is believed to be Alberta's first "net zero" community. The money spent on power from the grid in January is expected to be recouped in the sunny days of July.