By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 29, 2014
OTTAWA — Future trees will still look like today’s trees as the climate warms, but they’re going to need a whole new set of genes.
“In my opinion the single biggest threat to Canada’s forests is climate change,” says forestry professor Sally Aitken.“
And there are things that we can change ... to make that forest more resilient in the face of climate change.”
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 28, 2014
OTTAWA — Future trees will still look like today’s trees as the climate warms, but they’re going to need a whole new set of genes.
“In my opinion the single biggest threat to Canada’s forests is climate change,” says forestry professor Sally Aitken.
By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, January 28, 2014
OTTAWA — Suburban Ottawa needs wider driveways so residents can store more cars on their property, but only if it doesn’t mean cutting away more city curbs, city council’s planning committee decided Tuesday.
At stake is the suburban way of life outside the Greenbelt, which doesn’t fit into the rules the city has set for the sorts of houses that can be built there.
By Carys Mills, Ottawa Citizen, January 27, 2014
OTTAWA — With hundreds of its ash trees being ravaged by the emerald ash borer, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is dedicating new funds to help replace school trees that have been attacked by the invasive beetle.
The new staff-recommended budget initiative, for an undisclosed amount, will be put forth for approval at a board meeting next week, school board chair Jennifer McKenzie said Monday.
By Céline Gaulin, Ottawa Citizen Letter to the Editor, January 27, 2014
Re: False economies on the Rideau Canal, and Canal\'s heritage, history, Jan. 23.
If passionate expression is an indicator of what we consider important than there is no doubt that Canada\'s historical treasures matter to Canadians.
Over the past year I have participated in the debate about the state of Parks Canada\'s heritage assets. Last summer boaters expressed concern about historic canals in terms of proposed fees, service and safety. Also, Parks Canada retiree, Gordon Bennett raised concerns about budget reductions to historic sites and the need for more funding for protection and continued use.
By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, January 27, 2014
OTTAWA — It is perhaps fitting that Gatineau Park, a figurative stone’s throw from the nation’s capital, contains one of the densest populations of beaver in North America. The bucktoothed, semi-aquatic rodent is, after all, Canada’s national animal.
Over the last few decades, the National Capital Commission has learned to live in harmony with the park’s beaver, which number more than 1,100 in 272 active beaver colonies, according to a 2011 air inventory.
By Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen, January 26, 2014
OTTAWA — Residents of the Scott and Albert street areas braved frigid temperatures last week to protest what they characterize as an unfair city plan to run all the transitway buses on the road between Tunneys and LeBreton stations during light-rail construction. The detour will put 2,400 buses on the road every weekday starting in 2016, including more than 200 during certain peak hours.
Critics of the plan want at least some of those buses to use Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. But deputy city manager Nancy Schepers says that it’s not that easy. In a sit-down interview with the Citizen’s Joanne Chianello, Schepers discusses how the detour decision was made and what the city is planning to do to make what she recognizes will be a tough experience as bearable as possible.
By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, January 27, 2014
GATINEAU — Bird lovers have started a petition to ask the National Capital Commission to bring back bird feeders to Gatineau Park.
The NCC removed the feeders that have hung for years, saying it can’t ask visitors not to feed animals at the same time as it’s feeding the birds in winter.