Did you know?

• Most eggs sold in Canada are “cage eggs” – produced by hens kept in wire cages that are stacked one on top of the other. Determining which eggs were laid by happy hens is difficult, and labels can be misleading.
• “Fresh” or “farm-fresh” are labels that mean virtually nothing. Farm-fresh eggs could very well have been produced by hens in poor living conditions.
• Omega-3 eggs are produced by hens that consume flaxseed as part of their feed. All eggs contain some omega-3 fatty acids, however, and the amount can be increased simply by allowing hens to forage in pasture.
• Free-range eggs are produced by hens that have access to nest boxes and the outdoors for a limited amount of time per day in warm seasons, though conditions may still be over-crowded and inhumane.
• The colour of an egg simply depends on the type of hen that lays it. Brown eggs tend to be more expensive, not because their nutritional value is any higher, but because of a smaller provincial supply.
• The best way to ensure that the eggs you buy were laid by a happy hen is to purchase certified organic eggs, which are produced by organically fed, uncaged hens with access to the outdoors, although no government body audits certification.

Did you know?

• Cotton is said to be the world’s most polluting crop, responsible for as much as 25 percent of the world’s pesticide use. The production of nylon is responsible for up to 25 percent of the United Kingdom’s nitrous oxide emissions.
• According to studies the World Wildlife Fund has cited, only about 1 percent of pesticides used in the cotton growing industry reach their target. The rest is released into the environment, causing irreparable damage to people and wildlife.
• According to the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics database, China accounts for 30 percent of international apparel exports. Not only are working conditions and wages very poor in China, any garment coming from China must travel 10,000 kilometres to get to Ontario.
• According to a 2007 Cambridge University study, about 60 percent of the emissions generated by a white cotton T-shirt occur after its purchase as it is thrown into washing machines and dryers repeatedly.

My Turn: Soraya Peerbaye

Learning about birds

As told to Jim MacInnis

My parents’ homeland is Mauritius, an island of rich cultural and natural diversity located 900 kilometres east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. I spent the first nine years of my life travelling back and forth between Mauritius and Ontario.

Mauritius, of course, was home to the now extinct dodo bird. It’s funny about the dodo bird – growing up, we were mostly aware of the dodo’s reputation as the butt of a kind of evolutionary joke, and I thought it was somewhat embarrassing. But the island is also the site of one of the great successes in wildlife conservation: the recovery of the echo parakeet. Once down to a population of only 10 birds in the 1970s, this tropical bird – with its stunning dark green plumage and black collar – now numbers 300, thanks to the work of local conservation organizations and countless volunteers.

When I came across a magazine article about bird banding in Ontario, I was thrilled to find out that bird observatories depend on volunteers, and that many observatories are willing to train people who have no previous experience to do the work. It seemed like something I could do – and I so wanted to know the feeling of holding a bird in the hand!

We were a team of three on the banding trip to Cabot Head on the Bruce Peninsula: Stephane, the French-born bander-in-charge, Liz, an ornithology student, and me. We would get up just before sunrise and unfurl the 15 or so nets in the neighbouring woods. Every half-hour, we would check the nets, untangle any birds caught, place them in a cloth bag and take them back to the cabin to measure and weigh them and determine their sex and age. We would do this for most of the morning. On cold, rainy or windy days, we would not unfurl the nets – partly because fewer birds fly in such weather, and partly because birds captured in those conditions might risk shock or hypothermia or simply getting more entangled in the net. But in better weather, there was plenty of activity – one day we banded 82 birds.

I was struck by the varied responses of different birds to being netted. The sharp-shinned hawks and blue jays seemed quite argumentative, while the white-crowned sparrows kicked – like horses! – and the western palm warblers were timid and quiet and watchful.

Untangling the birds is extraordinarily pains-taking work. The net gets wrapped around the birds’ delicate structures, and you really feel how a bird is mostly feathers, how small the body is. I was pregnant during the trip and just beginning to feel the baby move – it felt like a fluttering. It was really intriguing to me to feel this sensation at the same time as I was learning the feel of a bird in the hand. And I love the idea that a bird banded in Cabot Head may be found again years later in Costa Rica – how this work connects volunteers across such distance.

I would like to continue to learn about bird banding. I find myself researching the ecologies of places that I write about more and more. I love this naming of things; now it seems to me so essential – this specificity – to poetry and language and the attempt to create a sense of intimacy in one’s experience of the world. When I know something about the environment that I live in, I feel I’m taking my place there with other creatures, other lives, other cycles. It makes my life larger.

Tree follies

by Conor Mihell

Following a devastating series of layoffs in northern Ontario’s forest industry triggered by downturns in the U.S. market, the prospect of opening a wood-processing mill in Chapleau that would provide 40 local jobs received widespread and enthusiastic support in the town of 1,700, located northwest of Sudbury. Read the full article…

Water works

by Jim MacInnis

Recently proposed changes to an admittedly creaky piece of legislation – dating back to 1882 – are giving paddlers a sinking feeling. The Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) was enacted during John A. Macdonald’s tenure as prime minister to protect the public right of navigation on Canadian rivers and waterways. Read the full article…

Cool science

by Allan Britnell

A typical student’s science fair project might analyze local sources of acid rain or show how to grow crystals. Big thinker Daniel Burd, a grade 11 student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, decided to tackle, in one fell swoop, a common source of household clutter and a growing global ecological problem: plastic bags. Read the full article…

Fear Factor

When done properly, a carbon-tax system could be the best approach to cutting emissions. As long as you’re not afraid of the T-word

by Edward Keenan

To o the relief of environmentalists, we’ve reached a stage where, for the most part, all political parties – provincial, federal, even international – agree that we need to start seriously cutting carbon emissions. But before we throw the 100-percent post-consumer tickertape parade, we need to deal with the complicated question of how to cut emissions. Two approaches have been put forward to help us face our inconvenient truth.

The first approach is the “cap-and-trade” system, which has support from premiers Dalton McGuinty of Ontario and Jean Charest of Quebec.

Basically, in a cap-and-trade system, a government establishes a ceiling (that’s the “cap”) on how much carbon may be emitted nationally. Using that cap as a guideline, the government sets limits on how much carbon pollution individual corporations will be allowed to emit. Corporations whose emissions are less than than their allowance get credits that they may then sell to corporations that exceed their allowance (that’s the “trade”). The theory is that this newly created financial market will provide corporations with an incentive to reduce emissions in order to earn money selling credits, while corporations that take a long time to adhere to their limit can carry on doing business even if they take a financial hit. Gradually, the caps are lowered.

The disadvantages of this approach are many. A new level of bureaucracy is required to create and regulate the emissions caps and assign the credits and regulate their sales. This approach also requires designing and enforcing a system of allowances for each individual manufacturer on the basis of criteria that need to be determined, which offers plenty of opportunity for lobbyists to get their cuff-linked hands into the process. To the chagrin of many environmentalists, it also enshrines pollution as a property right, recognized in the form of the tradeable credits. There’s one more big disadvantage: no one is sure how, or if, the cap-and-trade system will work. Such a system has been in place in the European Union since 2005. Some corporations have made windfall profits as a result of selling excess credits, yet overall carbon emissions have continued to rise there.

That the cap-and-trade system could be described as a failure has not diminished its popularity. In announcing their scheme, McGuinty and Charest declared that cap-and-trade is the way the world is going and both current U.S. presidential candidates favour such a system. Why is it so popular with politicians? It has the advantage of not imposing directly and immediately an additional cost on consumers – voters who might react negatively if prices go up – and, through its massive cost and call for huge government expansion, it gives the impression of getting things done. That the word “trade” lends it an aura of free-market credibility is icing on the cake.

The second approach is a carbontax system. Under this system the government levies a tax on carbon (either at the source or on emissions). That’s all.

So prices for things dependent on carbon fuels go up, and, consequently, consumers have an incentive to spend their money on alternatives. Corporations, jockeying for competitive advantage, have an incentive to lower their prices by avoiding carbon-dependent technologies. Over time, carbon taxes can be raised gradually, making carbon fuel an ever less attractive option to both consumers and corporations.

The advantage of this system – other than its simplicity – is that it works. Sweden and the Netherlands both introduced carbon taxes in the 1990s and both have drastically cut emissions.

What’s more, carbon taxes need not place a burden on corporations or people. If income and other taxes are cut to correspond with the new carbon taxes, people who spend the same amount on carbon fuels will see their taxes remain the same, at least in the short term. Anyone who takes the opportunity to spend money on greener options will get a tax cut. No new taxes – just a new option about whether to pay them.

The disadvantage? Everyone is afraid of the word “taxes.” Politicians worry that if the price of home heating or gasoline rises, people will get angry even if they receive an income tax cut that compensates for the rise in cost. But the true fear factor should be of a massive new complicated system that won’t work.

Toronto writer Edward Keenan is the city editor of Eye Weekly and a blogger for The Walrus.

Boiling Over

While the information in Jim MacInnis’s “Water removal” [Summer 2008] did not totally surprise me, it really infuriated me. Why do regional and federal governments continue to give away our water? What will it take to get the message across that unless things change, Canada will run dry?

The situation that was allowed to happen in Guelph is unbelievable. The application fee of $3,000 paid by Nestlé Waters Canada Inc. was like lunch money to them, and the price levied per million litres is outrageously cheap. I am certainly not in support of putting a higher price on water; what I can support, however, are regional and national programs that collectively put a sustainable management program in place to ensure that Canadians have water for many generations, rather than to quite literally give the water away so it can be sold back to us.

I’m sure the residents of Guelph put up a good fight to keep Nestlé from draining the Mill Creek watershed, and I hope the fight continues. I will lend my support to saving our precious water resources from being given to multinational corporations.
J.C. Brown, East York

Light Reading

Thank you for the article “The dark side of light” by Shannon Wilmot [Summer 2008]. For many, light pollution is hidden in plain view until they are made aware of its deleterious effects.

The “what you can do” advice is good, but since most light pollution comes from non-residential sources, it is also crucial to make sure that our political representatives know that we expect sensible lighting policies and practices. Like much of the work undertaken by naturalists over the past decades, campaigning for responsible lighting requires a great deal of educating and working with municipal governments, political representatives and business.

Responsible lighting is relatively straightforward and makes economic sense. Once society realizes that light pollution is just as unacceptable as air and water pollution, we may reclaim our natural heritage of dark night skies.
Wayne Liebau, Fenwick

Mine Fields

Ontario’s antiquated legislation allows the mining industry to stake claims almost anywhere and operate without full environmental assessments. Responding to the demands of First Nations and conservation groups like Ontario Nature, Premier Dalton McGuinty promised (again) to overhaul the Mining Act. Will this promise be kept?

By Conor Mihell

On a sunny, late April day, Catherine Bayne hopscotches her way along a steep and rocky portion of the northeastern shore of Lake Superior. I follow behind, balancing unsteadily on the wave-washed rocks; at the very least, a slip would mean an icy swim. Bayne seems unaware of the danger. Her eyes sparkle in the sunlight as she admires the rugged beauty of the coastline. Read the full article…

Ontario Nature’s AGM

In June, Ontario Nature hosted its 77th annual general meeting (AGM) in conjunction with the Carden Nature Festival. Held at the Sir William Mackenzie Inn in Kirkfield, Ontario, the agm attracted more than 100 visitors of all ages from across the province.

This year, Ontario Nature added a new and well-received activity to its AGM: a program geared entirely to kids. The Wye Marsh naturalist team led the day-long event, which attracted 26 excited participants. These budding naturalists got up close and personal with birds of prey and reptiles during live presentations; they also enjoyed nature hikes and learned about orienteering.

The day was filled with engaging activities for all naturalists, including a paddle on Lake Dalrymple, a hike to look for reptiles and amphibians and a butterfly identification walk.

This year’s conservation awards went to Lou Probst, Jacob Rodenburg, Bob Curry, Audrey Wilson, Brigitte Angster-Beckett and the City of Orillia, as well as the Region of Waterloo. The Margaret and Carl Nunn Memorial Camp Scholarship was awarded to four recipients: William Gardiner, Phoenix Jacobs-Parkin, Grace Thornton and Cameron Gray. Winners of the Ontario Nature Youth Writing Contest (see page 36) also received their awards.

Ontario Nature would like to thank all its members and supporters who participated in the 2008 agm. We hope to see everyone again next year.

OUR CLUBS: Orono Crown Lands Trust

In the summer of 2001, Orono councillors (Orono lies east of Oshawa) held a public meeting at the local arena to debate the best use of an abandoned 256-hectare spread of plantations, fields and naturally forested valley land within the Wilmot Creek watershed. Developed as the Orono Provincial Tree Nursery in 1922, the site was decommissioned by the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) in 1996. The councillors believed that a small, informal brainstorming session would gauge the community’s interest in protecting the abandoned acreage. To the councillors’ surprise, residents flocked to the meeting and demanded that the land be protected.

On October 19, 2001, mnr and the newly formed Orono Crown Lands Trust (OCLT), a registered nonprofit organization staffed by volunteers, signed a 20-year management plan.

Nearly seven years into the management plan, oclt’s 200 or so members have kept extremely busy holding up their end of the bargain. Volunteers regularly dedicate hours to maintaining the property and developing trails. Last year, volunteers planted 5,000 trees on the property in response to one of the largest infestations of dog-strangling vine the OCLT had ever seen. The organization also recognizes how important it is to educate youth so that proper stewardship can continue into future generations. oclt’s projects with the Ontario Stewardship Rangers, an MNR-sponsored youth program, include building a boardwalk and converting abandoned irrigation chambers into snake hibernacula.

Proceeds from oclt’s annual corn roast and barbecue, a popular family event in the Orono area, fund many of these maintenance projects.

Perhaps the most spectacular feature of the Orono Crown Lands is the butterfly garden named for Roy Forrester, avid naturalist and long-time educator. oclt created the garden to serve as a butterfly way station, an area that provides the resources necessary for monarchs to produce successive generations and sustain their migration. In 2006, Monarch Watch, a network of students, teachers, volunteers and researchers at the University of Kansas, certified the garden as Monarch Watch Way Station 753.

OCLT will continue to devote its resources to the enhancement and protection of the Orono Crown Lands.

A bigger, better Greenbelt

by Anne Bell

Ontario’s Greenbelt, covering 728,000 hectares of land that surrounds the Golden Horseshoe, may become even larger. The provincial government has been holding public meetings seeking input on draft criteria to expand the Greenbelt. These criteria will allow for input from community members and organizations in response to proposed expansions, and will ensure that expansions represent logical extensions to the existing Greenbelt that are consistent with the Greenbelt Plan and other provincial planning initiatives. Read the full article…

Hidden health hazards

by Julee Boan

Aging signs warning visitors of health risks from asbestos are the only visible evidence of the contaminants in the soil and air surrounding 17 former military sites scattered across Ontario’s Hudson Bay coastline. Abandoned in 1965, the sites were to function as early indicators of a military attack by detecting aircraft through radar. Read the full article…

Chemical cutbacks

by Sharon Oosthoek

A City of Toronto bylaw requiring that small and medium-sized businesses report the use and release of certain toxic chemicals would, if it passes, be precedent setting. Federal regulations demanding accountability for the use and release of chemicals exist but pertain only to large companies. This means that less than 3 percent of Toronto businesses are required to report on their use of chemicals, says Katrina Miller, campaigns director for the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA). Read the full article…

Great white birds

by Douglas Hunter

When four American white pelicans touched down in Owen Sound harbour last May, their unexpected arrival made headlines. The sighting was one of several in the spring of 2008 in the central Great Lakes. Pelicans were also spotted on Michigan’s Saginaw Bay, at Cheboygan on the Straits of Mackinac and along Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Read the full article…

For the defence

To mark CONE’s 30-year anniversary, Ontario Nature salutes this grassroots coalition created in our boardroom to safeguard the Niagara Escarpment from developers and industry. While CONE has not won every battle, it is certainly winning the war by making sure that the unesco World Biosphere Reserve that stretches from the Niagara Peninsula to the tip of the Bruce remains protected

By D’Arcy Jenish

Lyn MacMillan is seated in the sunroom of her country property north of Toronto – 57 hectares of rolling, wooded land now nearly surrounded by the suburban sprawl of the Town of Vaughan. She is reminiscing about the day in the spring of 1978, when hundreds of citizens converged on the grounds of Queen’s Park to voice their concerns about the future of the Niagara Escarpment. They were a noisy but passionate rabble, and they scored an important victory. Their protest persuaded Bill Davis’s minority Progressive Conservative government to defeat a Liberal private member’s bill that would have repealed the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act – a landmark law designed to control commercial activity and protect the environment. “We were overjoyed,” recalls MacMillan, a vibrant and dynamic octogenarian with a brisk British accent. “There were all these people milling around and stepping on each other’s toes, but I thought we needed to be better organized.”

Bigger battles lay ahead and Ontario Nature (then called Federation of Ontario Naturalists, or FON for short) asked MacMillan, one of its most active volunteers, to organize a coalition of groups and individuals to help fight them. The planning and development act, passed five years earlier, had provided for the creation of the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC). Its mandate included the drafting of a plan to regulate development and create protected natural areas within the 725-kilometre-long escarpment, which stretches from Queenston on the Niagara River to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula. fon knew that developers, aggregate companies and many municipalities along the escarpment would fight to keep as much land as possible free from such restrictions, and it was determined to meet them head on.

Not long after the Queen’s Park protest, MacMillan held a meeting at the kitchen table in the spacious, elegant Toronto home she and her late husband, Robert, a prominent cardiologist, shared with their five children. Half a dozen people attended – MacMillan and Ron Reid from FON, as well as representatives of the Canadian Environmental Law Association, the Canadian Nature Federation, Pollution Probe and the Foundation for Aggregate Studies, a citizens’ group opposed to the aggregates industry. That day they formed the Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment, CONE for short.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of this alliance of grassroots environmental and naturalist groups, which, over the decades, has become a tightly focused and formidable force in defence of the diverse and, in some cases, unique ecosystems of the escarpment. Many people consider fon prescient in pushing for its formation. “My husband was on the board of fon [at the time] and was very interested in the escarpment,” recalls Margaret Cranmer-Byng, who sits on the board of CONE and is a longtime member of Ontario Nature. “I remember him coming home from a meeting and saying that the federation was going to set up an organization to defend the escarpment because the government wasn’t doing enough. I have always felt that one of fon’s really great achievements was recognizing the need and doing something about it.” At 30 years old, it’s a legacy very much alive and well.

“It’s evident that there is still a great need for CONE,” says Caroline Schultz, executive director of Ontario Nature. “The escarpment is still under great pressure from developers, aggregate companies and others. We need the coalition as a coordinating body to fight the ongoing battles.”

CONE was only a few weeks old when it faced its first major test. A powerful and politically connected development company was seeking approval for a major executive retreat centre, Cantrakon, at Forks of the Credit, one of the most striking sites on the escarpment. The NEC turned down the proposal. So did the ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment. But Claude Bennett, the minister of housing at the time, approved it.

CONE leapt into action, leading the opposition to the proposal, recalls Reid, then a staff environmentalist with fon. It held press conferences, organized a letter-writing campaign against the project (addressing all correspondence to Premier Davis) and met with a number of mpps to educate them about the need to control development on the escarpment. “Cantrakon was a gift,” says Reid. “It blew up and became very controversial. It made people realize that the escarpment was in danger and the government wasn’t doing enough to protect it. It also looked like developers were getting favours from the [housing] minister in return for political support. No government could let that stand.” Cabinet turned down the proposal, and CONE scored its first important victory.

The experience taught the group the effectiveness of personal contact with political decision makers, and it began to aim higher. In 1980, MacMillan used her extensive network of connections to arrange a meeting with Premier Davis at his Queen’s Park office. The group’s goal was to persuade him to increase the conservancy funds available to acquire environmentally sensitive or significant escarpment lands for preservation purposes.

“The meeting began around quarter to 12 and we all thought we’d be lucky to get 10 minutes with him,” Reid says. “But he appeared to be interested and was very congenial. We were there till two o’clock and by then we were all starving. To make matters worse, Davis was a pipe smoker, and this was before smoking in the workplace became a no-no. He was puffing on his pipe and the room became smokier and smokier as the meeting went on, but nobody wanted to leave.”

By the time they stood, shook hands and left, the CONE delegates had secured a commitment of one million dollars from the premier. Davis, whose Brampton riding included Caledon and parts of the escarpment, acknowledges today he did have a soft spot for their cause. “They had no trouble getting me interested.”

The Nature of My Pond

These small self-sufficient ecosystems contain a surprising abundance of wildlife. Writer Cecily Ross patiently watches the life of a pond unfold before her

by Cecily Ross

It is well to have some water in your neighbourhood, to give buoyancy to and float the earth.
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden

As ponds go, ours isn’t much – a 15-metre-across shallow puddle set in the middle of a hayfield. In fact, the pond is so understated that when my husband and I bought this farm in the northeast corner of Dufferin County almost four years ago, the realtor didn’t even mention it. Read the full article…

Ontario Nature’s Third Annual Youth Writing Contest

For the third year in a row, Ontario Nature asked kids in grades 7 and 8 to write about some aspect of the natural environment. This time we asked children to respond to the question, “How is climate change affecting you and your community?” As one might expect, the essays we received varied widely and the selection committee – Gary Clement, author and cartoonist for the National Post, Peter Gorrie, environmental reporter, Wes Muir, director of corporate communications for Waste Management Inc., and Ontario Nature board member Stephanie Foster – chose the winners with great difficulty.

We were not only impressed by the quality of the essays submitted but also encouraged by their number – nearly 200, almost twice as many as last year. Many people in the environmental community share a concern that most urban kids have little or no access to nature. So knowing that every year more and more children write thoughtfully, and sometimes passionately, about the natural world is a welcome counterbalance.

The writers of the winning essays received their awards at Ontario Nature’s annual general meeting in June. We gratefully acknowledge the contest sponsor, Waste Management Inc.

FIVE WINNERS

1st: 101 Ideas
by Emma from Toronto

2nd: How is climate change affecting you and your community?
by Lauren from Burlington

3rd: The Diary of a Canadian, eh?
by Taylor from Sault Ste. Marie

4th: Not Today
by Melyssa from Toronto

5th: The Marsh
Andrew from Toronto

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101 Ideas

by Emma from Toronto

Ten people are standing in a line. Four are thinking about other engagements, four are wondering why they’re there and two are too stressed and tired to even care. Thirty people come out of a talk about global warming, but less than half are still thinking about the talk. Twenty people could be reading this right now. Maybe half will actually be thinking about the environment. The rest are probably wondering where I’m getting these statistics or why those people were standing in a line. My point is that everyone hears about climate change, but most people are too busy to really care. When I was little, my family went on a cross-Canada excursion, or at least that’s what my dad called it. I called it two weeks sitting next to my brother with nothing to do but fight. Do you think at the age of seven, if I had looked out the window, I would have seen the fields and thought, hey, maybe instead of playing Game Boy I should go outside and pick up some trash?

It is clear that saving the environment is not at the top of everyone’s to-do list. So, how do we get it on that list? If we made up slogans to save the environment or nifty little tunes, do you think people would clean up their act? Slogans are cute and fun to sing, but they don’t always make me want to buy the product. What if we made a movie? Not a movie with a guy saying a bunch of facts, but a kid movie full of animated creatures fixing the earth.

Do you think that kids would tell their parents to stop using the car, or do you think they would ask them to drive to the store and buy them figurines of the creatures? We could make a quick fix and get everyone to stick to it, force people to never again use their cars or never use any plastic. Do you think people would agree, or do you think they would vote for another government that would stop the ban on cars and plastic? What if we appealed to their sensitive or guilty sides by showing TV ads of dying polar bears and penguins? Do you think people are going to stare at them feeling bad, or do you think they will flip to a cheerier channel?

My point is there are 101 ideas of how to get people to care about the environment, but there’s only going to be one solution. People will stop when they have to stop. They’ll stop littering when there’s nothing to litter with. They’ll stop driving cars when they have other ways to get around. They’ll save the earth when there is no other way. So now that we’ve established that, we are not actually going to wait till it’s too late. We’ve got to make it out-of-the-way for people to kill the environment. We have to make drinks available for sale only if you have your own cup to put them in. Same with groceries – you get them when you have your own canvas bag. What about electric cars? Bring their price down and people will buy them over expensive gas cars. If we make it inconvenient to kill the earth, do you think people will do it? Sorry to break it to you, but most people are lazy.

So 10 years from now, we are doing this, making things better by making things only work one way. Another 10 people stand in a line. Four are still thinking about other engagements, four are still wondering why they’re there and two are too stressed and tired to even care. These people still have the same things on their mind, but now four take the bus and six drive electric cars. Six don’t have a single plastic bag in their home and three haven’t had a paper cup in years. The people may still have the same things on their mind, but even if they don’t know it, they are healthier and maybe slightly happier. They changed the world because it was inconvenient not to.

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How is climate change affecting you and your community

by Lauren from Burlington

Global warming is a serious problem that has negatively affected many aspects of life in my community of Burlington, in southwestern Ontario. Several environmental changes have been observed over the years, due to increasing temperatures and higher pollution levels from larger centres such as Toronto and Hamilton. Warmer summer and winter seasons have shortened fall and spring, and this has forced many people to change their lifestyles to adapt to more drought-like conditions in our region. Bird migration patterns and the growing cycles of plants and trees in our forests and gardens have also been altered.

Reduced rainfall and snow cover have been the most serious problems that have had the greatest impact on our neighbourhood. Land is extremely dry, and there is less water to use on hot days, because groundwater levels are low. People are aware that the water supply from Lake Ontario is not going to last forever, and they have tried to limit the number of days they water gardens and lawns. They have made an effort to stop using all unnecessary water completely in the months of July and August, to promote conservation. Hot weather mixed with poor air quality is also very unhealthy for many children with asthma. Burlington has many beautiful green areas, but the pollution from surrounding cities settles directly over us. Many seniors with respiratory illnesses cannot even venture outside during the many hot and humid days we now experience in this part of Ontario. Children’s outdoor winter programs in Halton have also been affected by climate change. There are fewer days in our winter season to enjoy local outdoor skating, snowshoeing or crosscountry skiing activities. In addition, the fall season has become extremely short over the past few years. It seems that people jump from summer to winter very late in the year and do not even start wearing their heavy jackets and coats until the middle of December.

More geese have been seen roaming around our community throughout the year. The Canada goose is a magnificent bird, but there are flocks that no longer migrate. There is enough food for them on our many golf courses to survive the winter, because the snow cover has been reduced. Halton’s maple trees are not showing their beautiful red leaves in October either, because the night temperatures are too warm. Many people have noticed that tree species in our forests are dry and that they are becoming more susceptible to disease. Pests are not being killed off by cold weather as they were in the past. Our tulip bulbs have been blooming much earlier and many trees have leaf buds well before the beginning of spring.

Attending Halton’s nature camps over the years has always been a highlight of my summer vacation. These programs are important because they introduce young children to the beauty of nature and they then learn to care about the environment. During our many hikes, I have also observed that warmer temperatures seem to be drying up important wetland areas (some reservoirs) and ponds that birds and frogs need as habitats.

Families in our community care and are trying hard to change their ways so that they can reduce their carbon footprints. They are recycling more and using less plastic. There is also strong support for local farmers, and our composting program began in the spring of 2008. I have noticed an increase in the number of pedestrians and cyclists who are leaving their cars at home to run simple errands that are only blocks away. There has also been an increase in the number and variety of green products available at our local stores.

It is important for everyone to realize that climate change is having a negative effect on the people, birds and vegetation of Ontario and beyond. Community education programs about global warming are necessary to teach people how to adapt their behaviour so that they can begin to improve the health of our cities for future generations.

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The Diary of a Canadian, eh?

by Taylor from Sault Ste. Marie

July 16, 2023:
This is my first time back in 27 years. A lot has changed in Canada: the people, the economy, even my grumpy old neighbour, Jack, but especially the climate. It’s 24 C and we actually have to wear sunscreen! That’s never happened before! Well, in Australia we did, but never in Canada! I remember when I was seven years old we could play outside for hours and hours on end until we got sunburned, then our mothers would peel off the skin and that was it. The next day we would go out and do it all again!

October 31, 2023:
It’s Halloween today. I took my nephew Gordon and my two kids out trick-or-treating, and that reminded me of when I used to go hunting for goodies! I would get all dressed up, but first I’d have to put on layers and layers of extra clothes just to stay warm. Nowadays all you need is a costume.

December 23, 2023:
Today I tripped over something in my garage while getting my wrench to fix the broken chairs in my dining room. At first I didn’t know what it was, so I dusted it off. It sort of looked like this giant mutant robot, but then I realized it was just my dad’s old snow blower from 12 years ago. We hadn’t needed it in FOREVER and it doesn’t look like we’ll need it for a while! It also looks like it’s going to be a green Christmas again this year. It’s quite sad because it reminded me of the good ol’ days when my f amily and I would take a long trip out to Farmer Bob’s for a sleigh ride in the snow. Now it’s more like a horse ride in the grass. There is no point in even getting a hot chocolate afterwards because you’re not even cold!

May 15, 2024:
I finally made it out to camp this weekend. It’s been all winter since I got to the cabin by the lake, but when I got there I noticed there was no lake. The water level had dropped tremendously. It’s at a record low level! Last year the water was two feet deep, but now it’s gone down to a foot and a half. My daughters were very disappointed, because they were looking forward to swimming. Now, it’s like they are walking in a puddle just after it rained! My husband and I were also disappointed by the drop in the water level, because we had loaded up the two kayaks and our canoe. We had a whole day on the water planned. Well, we still had lots of fun. We always seem to!

August 30, 2024:
I got another call today. Another one of my friends, Patty, has skin cancer. That’s the third one; Patty, Ellen and Terry. It’s getting worse because of the uv rays and how the earth and the atmosphere are getting hotter. Patty has gone through so much, from the passing of her mother just recently to this. I wish I could do something, but you can’t change the weather or how fast Patty will get better. It’s heartbreaking to see somebody with as much spunk and enthusiasm as Patty feel as poorly as she does. I guess all we can do is put on coats and coats of sunscreen and wear a hat when we go out to prevent getting this terrible disease!

Four years later …

February 10, 2028:
We have lived here for about five years now. I don’t think we’ll be staying for much longer, though. The water is all dried up and the grass is dead. Maybe it’s time to move back. Or will it only be worse in Australia? I’m not certain but I’ll sleep on it.

It only got worse. I could notice it getting warmer and warmer each and every day.

Note:
That’s what it’s going to be like in 20 or 25 years if we don’t all contribute to saving our earth. It could be something as easy as recycling your bottles – everything makes a difference.

Short-eared owl

This mysterious little raptor must contend with multiple threats to its survival including the absence of a recovery plan to help stabilize its populations

by Tim Tiner

Quiet, secretive and increasingly rare, the short-eared owl is an enigmatic, ground-nesting seeker of expansive open spaces. A bird that travels widely, it can be found on every continent, save Australia and Antarctica. In Canada, Asio flammeus could turn up anywhere south of the High Arctic, as long as the view is clear and the mousing is good. The owl’s nomadic ways, retiring manner and scant numbers, however, combine to limit the human understanding that may be needed to ensure this nocturnal hunter’s survival.

Like many other grassland birds, short-eared owls have been hard hit in recent decades. The intensification of agriculture, the disappearance of wetlands, development and recreation have sharply reduced their habitat over the past century. Pesticides may also be a threat. In southern Ontario, these graceful, crow-sized owls are now typically reported nesting in just a handful of sites each summer, usually in meadows, hayfields, pastures and marshes.

Cross-country surveys indicate that population numbers for this species fell by 23 percent over the past decade and by an average of 8 percent a year between 1968 and 2006. In 1994, the owl was officially designated as a species of special concern both federally and in Ontario. Although short-eared owl nests – bowls scraped into dead, matted vegetation – are well concealed in long grass, they are nevertheless often discovered by foxes, skunks, and other predators. Pressure from predators, however, probably increases in places where fields of grass are cut back or bisected with roads.

The nest locations of these owls change from one year to the next, fluctuating with the local abundance of voles. Short-ears pursue their tiny quarry by patrolling up and down fields like a northern harrier, gliding between slow wingbeats, usually two or three metres above the ground and often stopping to hover in mid-air. Their broad wings are very large for their body size, spanning a metre or more, and give the birds great buoyancy and an agile, bouncy manner of flight, often described as mothor butterfly-like. But their penchant for flying low also imperils them around roads.

While the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has provided some research funding, it has no short-eared owl management plan, officially required for species of special concern. The ministry is scrabbling to draw up recovery plans for the 85 species designated as endangered and threatened in Ontario’s new Endangered Species Act.

This spring, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada reconfirmed the short-eared ranking, noting that it “nearly meets the criteria for threatened status.” Indeed, some biologists believe it definitely warrants a higher level of alert.

The owl’s status in Ontario remains unchanged largely because of a core nesting population in the Hudson Bay Lowlands that appears to be stable, though it has been too little studied to assess its status with certainty. Short-ears – almost absent in the forested interior of the province – are sometimes fairly common on the northern tundra and wetlands; aerial surveys by the Canadian Wildlife Service and MNR found their numbers dropped following rodent population crashes in the area in 2004 and 2005, but rose again by the summer of 2007.

Many people speculate that the threats to these birds increase in the winter when they are in more developed areas than their northern nesting strongholds. Southern Ontario has far more short-ears during the winter, when they sometimes begin hunting in the late afternoon, than in the nesting season. The Ottawa Valley lies at the northern limit of their winter range. Farther south, the Haldimand area sometimes hosts more of the owls than anywhere else on the continent, with 85 tallied on the 2003/04 Fisherville Christmas Bird Count, south of Cayuga. Most winter roosts – either on the ground in fields or, if the snow gets deep, in nearby evergreens – have only a few birds. Still, sightings have declined significantly as the owls’ old haunts have been turned into cornfields, subdivisions and other unsuitable settings.

To help fill the huge gaps in knowledge needed for effective conservation measures, the few researchers working on short-eared owls across North America have launched several satellite telemetry initiatives in the past two years. In February, Bird Studies Canada (bsc) attached a tiny, solar-powered backpack transmitter to a female owl wintering in Haldimand to track its movements. After flying to Michigan in April, the bird changed course and reached the tip of the Bruce Peninsula four days later, then flew all the way to the Ungava Peninsula in northwestern Quebec by mid-May, where apparently it settled down to nest.

Up to now, no one has even been sure whether the mysterious raptors have regular migration peaks and patterns. Both bsc and the Migration Research Foundation hope to get funding to outfit a few more short-ears with the transmitters in the coming winter.

Tim Tiner is the author of several books and is a frequent contributor to ON Nature.

Great beginnings

by Caroline Schultz

The business of conservation requires perseverance and endurance. Our goals are mostly long-term and can take years to achieve. Usually the conservation community needs to be satisfied with short-term gains that are baby steps toward what we hope will be a greener and more sustainable future. So Premier Dalton McGuinty’s July 14 announcement that his government will protect 225,000 square kilometres of Ontario’s northern boreal region (half the area north of 51 degrees latitude) was the sort of rare long-term commitment that warranted an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response and much celebration. It is unprecedented in Canada. Ontario Nature has worked long and hard to achieve this commitment through building public awareness and support, collaborating with northern First Nations communities, and compiling scientific data and evidence to support conservation-based land-use planning.

Ontario’s northern boreal landscape is characterized by an abundance of wildlife and fish, including an estimated quarter billion breeding birds, some of which are already in decline, and threatened woodland caribou and wolverine. It is also a globally important carbon store that the government estimates to represent 97 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. Particularly important are its peatlands, which contain thousands of years of stored carbon.

A number of industrial activities are exerting rapidly increasing pressure on the northern boreal region of the province. Logging, hydro development and mineral exploration and mining are all poised to open up the north and indeed have already begun to encroach into this area. The greatest immediate threat is mineral staking, exploration and, eventually, fully operating mines. Conor Mihell describes in startling detail the stranglehold exploration and mining have on the entire province in his article “Mine fields” on page 18. Rooted in the antiquated Mining Act, passed in 1873 (some 20 years before the Klondike gold rush), he documents the woefully lacking legislative and policy frameworks that allow mining and exploration to trump environmental protection and the rights of First Nations and individual citizens. The recent spate of government approved mineral staking is but one example of how the status quo is allowing a frontier mentality in the treatment of the northern boreal region.

Critics charge that the announcement lacks detail, such as exactly which lands will be protected areas and by what criteria they will be identified. No one thinks that achieving the best protection for this region will be easy. Gathering and analyzing data will go on for years, and numerous debates will occur with government resource managers and stakeholders who at times may seem to have irreconcilable differences. But there is a lot to be hopeful about. We have the commitment to the big goals for land-use planning, the broad framework under which it will be undertaken and the promise that it will be informed by sound science. The commitment to review the Mining Act promises to ensure that mining potential across Ontario is developed in a sustainable way.

And we also have a short-term gain – a hold on further industrial development until all values and interests have been identified and weighed.

Finally, the real business of protecting Ontario’s northern boreal landscape begins.

Caroline Schultz is the executive director of Ontario Nature.

Contributors

Cecily Ross has written on a wide range of topics – relationships, the arts, health and food. Her move to the country inspired her latest article, “The nature of my pond”, an exploration of her pond’s unique ecosystem. “All at once the workings of the world in my backyard became fascinating,” says Ross. “Writing for ON Nature has allowed me to delve into the natural world in a way I wouldn’t have otherwise.” Ross is a senior editor at The Globe and Mail.

While researching the two dominant political approaches to reducing emissions (carbon tax and cap-and-trade) for the Last Word column (“Fear factor,” page 46), Edward Keenan was astounded by the dearth of compelling arguments in favour of a cap-and-trade system, save that it might be more politically viable than a tax. “As is the case with so many pieces of ‘conventional wisdom,’” says Keenan, “everyone seems to acknowledge that the public won’t accept any argument that makes a lick of sense.” Keenan is the city editor of Eye Weekly.

Urban Nature