By Mike Vlasveld, 1310 News, August 18, 2020
Seven people are facing fines after riding e-scooters on Ottawa sidewalks.
Ottawa Police Sergeant Mark Gatien with the service's traffic division says they've been getting numerous complaints from members of the public about e-scooters being used on local sidewalks, so they assigned an officer to e-scooter sidewalk enforcement.
Seven tickets were issued Monday, at $180 a piece.
By Greg MacDougall, Counterpunch, August 9, 2020
The ‘Zibi’ development-in-construction is situated at a sacred site – the area at what is known in English as the Chaudière Falls, on the river between Ottawa and Gatineau, an area named Akikodjiwan or Asinabka in the Algonquin language Anishinabemowin.
These first two August weekends, the RBC Bluesfest Ottawa drive-in concerts – livestreamed online with #CanadaPerforms, a federal program to support artists during the COVID pandemic – are being hosted at a venue that may raise eyebrows to anyone supporting the current protests against racism and monuments to a racist-colonial past.
(...)Ecology Ottawa chose to stop taking sponsorship money from the development company in 2015, to maintain a clear distance from the developer.
By Muriel Draaisma, CBC News, August 3, 2020
Conservation groups say they are concerned about an Ontario government decision to allow a hunt of double-crested cormorants across the province this fall.
The Ontario ministry of natural resources and forestry announced the hunt on Friday, calling it a "fall harvest," and said it will allow a hunter with an outdoors card and small game licence to kill up to 15 birds a day from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31. Hunters will be allowed to shoot the birds from stationary motorboats.
According to the ministry, the rationale for the killing of the birds is that they reduce fish stocks and their droppings damage natural habitat. It says they hurt the livelihoods of commercial fishermen and property owners, hunters and anglers have all complained.
By Mark & Ben Cullen, Toronto Star, July 28, 2020
What is the value of a caterpillar?
For humans, it’s often a negative, “ick-factor” value.
For a chickadee, the value is equivalent to over 200 aphids (which mean using a lot more energy flying back and forth to the nest). Caterpillars are the no. 1 choice, especially this time of year when young birds are feeding to beat the band.
(...)
That is, we could create Canada’s largest park if we changed just a few things about our behaviour and priorities concerning our land, trees and water. Environmental conservation is what we’re talking about here.
The conversation about conservation has shifted in recent years — among environmentalists, especially — to the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. These connections are made by American entomologist Doug Tallamy in his most recent book, “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard” (Timber Press, February, 2020).
By InsideOttawaValley, July 27, 2020
A & W., another fast food outlet we do not need in Perth, is coming whether we like it or not.
The company is building on a lot, which until over a dozen mature trees were cut down, was a beautiful oasis from the concrete jungle at the plaza and a nice entry on Wilson Street into town. It is not as if Perth has a deficiency of fast food outlets, there are half a dozen or more, even those with a drive-through, making a mockery of the town's idle bylaw.
We need trees, not fast food outlets.
By Hope Berk, Capital Current, July 28, 2020
A new community-level project will allow residents to measure air quality in Ottawa by simply taking a walk, riding a bike or pushing a baby stroller.
The Breathe Easy campaign — a partnership between Ecology Ottawa and the Ottawa chapter of Sierra Club Canada — will provide monitors to volunteers (or air-trackers as they’re calling them) to identify areas of good and poor air quality in the city.
The monitors will measure levels of pollutants such as ozone gas, nitrogen dioxide and “particulate” matter – small particles floating in the air made up of harmful substances such as carbon and sulfur.
(...)“Air quality is possibly the most fundamental thing that we need to have to survive. From the very first breath we take as little babies to our very last breath on Earth, it’s something we cannot live for more than maybe two minutes without,” said Cole. “And yet I don’t think any of us think about it. We just get up and do our thing and think everything’s fine.”
(...)
The Ottawa campaign was inspired by the INHALE project in Toronto and Hamilton, which also monitored urban air quality by putting tools directly in citizens’ hands.
“It can be a really powerful tool because it visualizes the invisible and it starts the conversation. And depending on who’s holding the monitor, it opens the door to, I think, really powerful conversations in the community,” said Lynda Lukasik, executive director of Environment Hamilton.
By Perth News, InsideOttawaValley, July 27, 2020
Since adopting its Climate Action Plan in January 2020, Lanark County has taken some decisive actions toward achieving goals for sustainability.
Protecting and enhancing the natural environment is a core strategy in the county’s 2005 Strategic Plan, and council established “climate and environment” as one of its top five priorities for this term.
“We need a holistic approach with a multitude of strategies in order to reach a level of sustainability in our county,” explains chief administrative officer Kurt Greaves. “Climate change and environmental degradation are defining challenges of our time.”
A work plan outline set goals for this year and includes strategies related to grant research and applications, homes, forests and farms, industry, waste diversion, transportation, municipal buildings, and public engagement.
(...)
Currently, a Transportation survey is being conducted to gather information on the current level of greenhouse gas emissions. The public is asked to help by completing the survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2019LCTravel.
Homeowners can get involved in reducing emissions related to heating and cooling with the “Insulate Lanark” program, which piggybacks the existing “Renovate Lanark” program. Low-income families can apply for funds to help insulate their homes.
By Yonna Murphy, InsideOttawaValley, July 27, 2020
At first glance, nothing seemed amiss at Dan Woods and Tineke Doornbosch’s five-acre wooded property in Tay Valley Township. Flowers bloomed everywhere, the shrubs and trees were lush and green, and birds could be heard chirping on a sunny July afternoon.
But look closer and one can see the devastation brought about by a two-inch predator — the invasive Gypsy moth.
Mature, 100-year-old oak and pine trees in his property looked sickly, with bare branches and thin foliage, remnants of a month-long defoliation brought on by the Gypsy moth.
(...)
“Gypsy Moths know no borders. They’re at home throughout the United States and in recent decades, throughout many parts of Canada as well,” Woods explained.
There are a few things that can be done to mitigate the Gypsy moth infestation.
“Major municipalities in southern Ontario along the Niagara, Hamilton and Toronto corridor have aerial sprayed gypsy moth caterpillars in the last couple of years,” Woods said.
“It’s time municipal, regional and provincial authorities recognize the destruction they’re causing to our eastern Ontario forests as well, and aerial spray them here too. Our forests are far too valuable to ‘just do nothing,’” said Woods.
By Jake Cole (Sierra Club), Ottawa Citizen, July 20, 2020
What may cause more deaths in Ottawa than COVID-19?
It’s air pollution and it may in fact be more dangerous to city residents in the long term than COVID-19. According to Health Canada, there are approximately 500 air pollution-related deaths in Ottawa annually. As of July 15, there had been 263 local COVID-19-related deaths since March.
(...)The Sierra Club Canada Foundation has financial support from the Ottawa Community Foundation to provide that knowledge. We are working together with Ecology Ottawa to make this information accessible and available to Ottawans through the Breathe Easy Project.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 20, 2020
A western Quebec couple is in a battle with their municipality over a specially designed yard containing milkweed, tall grasses and wildflowers.
Last summer, the municipality of La Pêche informed Jazmine Maisonneuve and Samuel Cloutier, both 37, that the tall-growing vegetation on the commercial property surrounding a new workshop facility in the village of Masham constituted a "nuisance."
Last month, the municipality sent them another warning and told them they faced a $400 fine if they didn't mow it.
"We very deliberately and intentionally did not sow grass. We don't want to mow our lawn. We don't want a lawn, in fact — we want a meadow," said Maisionneuve, a landscape designer.
The municipality told the couple that a neighbour complained the yard — which is filled with milkweed, thistles, purple asters, Queen Anne's lace and other flowers that attract pollinators — lowered neighbouring property values.
By CBC News Ottawa, July 16, 2020
E-scooters are now available for rent in Ottawa from the first of three companies chosen to take part in a city pilot project.
The city said in a news release residents can expect to see Bird Canada's e-scooters popping up in central Ottawa on Thursday.
The standup scooters can be rented using a mobile app. They cost $1.15 to unlock and 35 cents a minute to ride, plus tax, according to the Bird app.
The city is still finalizing contracts with Lime and Roll so they can launch their scooters, too. The companies will have slightly different boundaries.
Dockless e-scooters have been legal since the end of June on city streets with a speed limit up to 50 km/h, as well as on bike lanes and paths.
By Laurie Weir, InsideOttawaValley, July 17, 2020
A new LED street light project got the green light in Lanark Highlands Township after council awarded the $72,266 bid to Black and McDonald Limited.
The recommendation is that the surplus funds (just under $22,000) from the project will be set aside to replace the lights at the Clyde Memorial and Vincent Hall Memorial ball parks sometime in the future, noted Ryan Morton, CAO/clerk of the township. The public works department had budgeted $94,000 for the work.
(...)It is estimated that the current annual wattage of 26,468 will be reduced to 9,622 with the new LED lights.