By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, July 26, 2016
There’s an incremental bit of news on the long-awaited release of the King Edward truck tunnel study — it will be published during the week of Aug. 15.
That’s according to a letter Postmedia received from Rick O’Connor, the city clerk and solicitor and the overseer of Ottawa’s access-to-information shop.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, August 3, 2016
The best strategy for endangered animals: Grow a spine. Then humans will protect you.
Most of the cash for conserving endangered animals goes to big “charismatic” species and there’s little left for smaller spineless ones, a global survey by Ottawa scientists shows.
Spineless things — insects and spiders and shellfish and the rest — matter a lot, the group largely from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa says. Bees and butterflies pollinate our food while beetles keep soil healthy.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, August 3, 2016
This summer, Postmedia’s Tom Spears brings you the often offbeat science behind the season that calls us to go outdoors. It’s all part of a series we call the Science of Summer. Today’s story explains the science behind what makes a sunset pretty. The vivid colours in the sky at sunset look like art, but underlying them is the physics of light and colour, as fascinating as the colours themselves.
Wayne Hocking of Western University’s physics department has spent years studying our atmosphere, and knows a lot about what it does to light.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, August 3, 2016
The continuing drought won’t be getting better anytime soon.
The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority calls the current level a moderate drought. In the past 90 days we’ve had less than 60 per cent of the long-term average rainfall for this time of year.
And with a hot week under way and no significant rain forecasted for the coming week, the region will have a lot of evaporation from lakes, rivers, and the soil.
By Steven Fischer, CBC News Ottawa, August 1, 2016
Ottawa Public Health is warning people to take precautions this summer to prevent bites from deer ticks, insects that can potentially transmit a debilitating disease.
Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in Canada and OPH says that so far this summer, 10 people in Ottawa have become infected.
By Bob Dixon, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, August 2, 2016
Recycling policy a complete waste
When the green bin program was introduced in 2010 I accepted it as inevitable but I was not enthusiastic at the outset. I did, however, gradually get into the practice of separating the various disposables and became much more conscientious about doing my part. I had heard the various stories of maggots in the green bin and from time to time I would see evidence on the street in front of my home that a bag of organic waste had burst and spilled the mess.
By Jessica Cunha, Ottawa Community News, July 27, 2016
March Road and a narrow train bridge along Carling Avenue pose the greatest dangers to commuter cyclists in Kanata.
The results of a cycling blitz that ended at the Kanata North Business Park are calling on the city to improve cycling infrastructure in the west end. Travel on March Road, as well under the train bridge located near 3701 Carling Ave., present the most dangerous challenges to cyclists, said Julie Gourley, program co-ordinator of Sustain Kanata North.
By CTV News Ottawa, July 29, 2016
Opponents of a controversial construction project in Almonte, Ontario are pinning their final hopes on a rather unusual ally.
The tiny, and incredibly rare rapids clubtail dragonfly.
It’s hoped the endangered species will help put a halt to the expansion of the Enderdu Generating Station on the Mississippi River in the heart of Almonte. The habitat of any endangered species is automatically protected.
By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, July 29, 2016
Tunnelling work for the Confederation LRT line is set to resume next week beneath Rideau Street, about eight weeks after a massive sinkhole swallowed three traffic lanes and a minivan.
There was only about 50 metres of tunnel left to excavate between the Rideau station cavern and Sussex Drive on the morning of June 8, when the road collapse caused work there to halt immediately.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, July 28, 2016
Bloodvein River, Manitoba/Ontario
Bonnet Plume River,Yukon
Boundary Waters/Voyageur Waterway, Ontario
Clearwater River, Saskatchewan/Alberta
Cowichan River, British Columbia
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, July 28, 2016
Parks Canada is ending a decade-long campaign to win recognition for Canada’s “original trans-Canada highway” with the announcement Thursday morning that the federal and Ontario governments have designated the Ontario portion of the Ottawa River as a Canadian Heritage River.
“It’s important because it recognizes the historical, cultural and recreational significance of the Ottawa River,” Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna, the federal minister responsible for Parks Canada, told Postmedia.
By Nick Stow, StittsvilleCentral, July 26, 2016
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Poole Creek may be Stittsville’s most important natural feature. It meanders from west to north east, crossing through neighbourhoods old and new, playing a crucial role in our community’s ecology. In this three-part series, ecologist Nick Stow follows the creek from start to finish, looking at how it changes as it travels through wetlands, forests and new subdivisions. All photos by Nick Stow.)
JUST EAST OF MAIN STREET, POOLE CREEK TURNS NORTH AND DISAPPEARS into a large remnant of Stittsville’s once extensive wetlands. Almost inaccessible, the wetland remains largely unsurveyed and uninventoried. However, I suspect that an bioinventory would likely reveal several species at risk, especially Blanding’s turtle, which is known from the Goulbourn Wetland Complex and several isolated observations elsewhere in the village.