A strong wind whipped in heavy grey clouds, and the threat of rain was imminent as several hundred shivering people queued up at the edge of a woodlot north of Shelburne at the beginning of a unique demonstration of civil society. They were lining up to protest against the proposed “mega-quarry” in North Dufferin County’s Melancthon Township and to raise funds to fight the application and to celebrate the area’s farmland and the food it produces. Eight hours and 28,000 people later, world-renowned chef and president of the Canadian Chefs’ Congress Michael Stadtländer had pulled off the coup he had planned: Foodstock, with 100 top chefs from across Ontario and beyond and an army of local volunteers.

Like most who attended Foodstock, I drove two and a half hours on roads and highways made of the very stuff that was the reason for this protest journey of thousands of Ontarians. The proposed quarry, which would be North America’s second largest, is the most recent in a long history of pits and quarries that have stirred public outrage. But this project is astounding in the way that the land was acquired from farmers and its sheer size and scale. The quarry would spread across 2,135 acres (937 hectares) and be almost 80 metres deep in places, bringing with it the spectre of major loss of some of Ontario’s best farmland, threats to ground and surface waters, and loss of wildlife habitat and other natural heritage.

Irish rock band U2’s 1987 song “With or Without You” could be the theme song for society’s relationship with the aggregate industry. As long as the population in this province continues to grow, we will need to feed it with the raw material for constructing roads, buildings and other infrastructure. Apparently, we can neither live without stone, sand and gravel nor live with the way these materials are produced. Or could we?

In his article on page 32, Ray Ford describes a new bend in the road of aggregate production in Ontario – a collaborative initiative of six environmental organizations and six leading aggregate industry players, including representatives from some of its heaviest hitters, to tackle the major sources of conflict between the environment and communities on one hand and the producers on the other. The Ontario

Aggregate Forum’s flagship initiative, a voluntary certification program based on rigorous environmental and community standards, has the potential to be a game changer, raising the performance bar well above the level required by regulation through creative and collaborative problem-solving and innovation.

Ontario Nature is a founding member of the Aggregate Forum. Over many years, we have fought the granting of specific aggregate extraction licences and worked to change legislation to protect natural heritage from the impact of pits and quarries. Now we are looking for something different. With more than 3,000 pits and quarries currently licensed in Ontario and many more in the pipeline, we need systemic change rather than fighting one-on-one battles. Sitting down with this industry to figure out how to make it “green” has been an interesting challenge but is an investment that may in the end reap great rewards. There will always be a need for occasional David and Goliath battles, such as the one in Melancthon Township, but we hope these will become increasingly rare – not because environmentalists and communities are depleted and defeated but because we have found a better way to protect our communities and environment.

Most of us have known for years that trees are good for the environment, particularly because of their ability to sequester greenhouse gases spewed by cars and the other conveniences of our lives. Yet, until recently, no one knew precisely just how much carbon forests could store. But a detailed analysis published in the August 19, 2011, issue of the journal Science has cleared the air on how significant a factor forest-carbon capture is.

The study, which analyzed forest inventory figures from countries around the globe and grouped them according to temperate, tropical and boreal regions, estimates that forests cumulatively sequester approximately 2.4 billion tonnes of carbon every year. That means that trees capture nearly one-third of the estimated 8.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted annually.

“This study clearly indicates the important role that forests play in absorbing carbon and regulating the climate,” says Anne

Bell, Ontario Nature’s director of conservation and education. “The science is complex, and there are many uncertainties, but of note is the finding that, globally, the net forest carbon sink is mainly in the temperate and boreal forests.”

That is in part because the carbon released from the ongoing deforestation in the tropics almost entirely negated the amount sequestered in patches of undisturbed tropical forest. One saving grace for the region was the surprisingly high level of carbon capture – 1.6 billion tonnes – of forest regrowth following logging and slashand- burn operations.

Closer to home, the researchers also came to some troubling conclusions. Over the course of the two time periods studied,

1990 to 1999 and 2000 to 2007, the biomass of Canadian forests actually decreased by half, primarily as a result of losses to forest fires and damage from invasive species.

This summer, the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation took a bold stance to protect the Big Trout Lake watershed by ratifying a watershed declaration and consultation protocol aimed at preserving 1.3 million hectares of boreal lakes, rivers, forests and wetlands that form the spiritual, as well as physical, centre of the community.

The watershed is within KI territory, which lies some 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. The declaration is a strong example of a First Nations community taking a proactive lead in determining what, if any, industrial activity is permitted on its territories.

KI has run up against unwanted industrial projects in the past, most recently when Platinex, a mineral speculation company, began exploring the lands upriver of Big Trout Lake without the community’s permission or knowledge. Subsequent legal battles, along with active assertion of KI’s rights and protests to keep Platinex off KI lands, led to the temporary imprisonment of the chief, Donny Morris, and five other KI community members in November 2007. The community’s refusal to back down and its acts of civil disobedience pushed Platinex eventually to surrender its mining claim in December 2009 – a decision Morris saw as a major victory. Even so, he determined that there is more work to be done to ensure the conservation of the watershed.

Nearly two years later, the people of KI rallied around the watershed declaration and consultation protocol to ensure that “all waters that flow into and out of Big Trout Lake …[are] completely protected.” The declaration goes on to state that “no industrial uses, or other uses which disrupt, poison, or otherwise harm our relationship to these lands and waters will be permitted.”

The declaration sets a potentially game-changing precedent demonstrating the potential of First Nations-led land-use planning and serving as a model for northern communities that struggle to find a balance between industrial development and land stewardship. Earthroots campaigner David Sone, who works closely with KI, notes that “far too many First Nations communities are forced to suffer from industrially contaminated water sources.” The declaration represents a written manifestation of KI’s traditional Aboriginal law. As well as demanding complete watershed protection, the community is calling on all stakeholders to consult directly with KI before undertaking any development on its land; moreover, industrial activity of any kind will require KI’s prior consent.

Ontario Nature supports the KI watershed declaration and consultation protocol. Learn more about KI’s efforts at http://KILands.org.

Many in the environmental community found that the recent provincial election was as notable for what was not discussed as it was for the points of contention. Absent from most debates was any discussion of conservation in an era of climate change. While candidates crossed swords over, for example, the applicability of the HST to the price of gasoline, no one considered the near future impacts of global warming on the enormous, yet fragile, northern ecosystems.

To offer an opportunity to discuss important environmental issues, Ontario Nature’s Northern Connections program hosted the Green Economy Forum for Northern Ontario last September in Thunder Bay. Michael Gravelle, then the minister of northern development, mines and forestry, Steve Mantis of the NDP, Scot Kyle of the Green Party and Anthony Leblanc, running for the Conservatives at the time, participated in one of the featured panel discussions. The then-candidates were asked to consider a number of questions, ranging from whether Ontario could become a post-carbon economy to how to ensure that a robust economy can accommodate habitat protection for endangered species such as woodland caribou.

The goal of the forum was to push our political leadership and engage local citizens in thinking beyond the election cycle of the next four years. Moreover, the forum aimed to develop a long-term vision for a sustainable economy – one that looks after the needs of people while respecting the real limits of the natural world.

Fifty-three participants from across Ontario discussed ways to support community based renewable energy projects, restructure our forest industries to get more value per unit of wood, create markets for ecosystem services, reduce food insecurity in remote communities and create communities that can withstand economic and environmental transformation.

The Green Economy Forum helped kickstart a longer conversation we need to have as we struggle to find ways to balance our own needs with those of future generations and the earth’s other species. As one of the participants at the forum said, it is important to be able to hear from your MPP, but it is much more important that your MPP hears from you.

After nearly a decade of destruction due to a voracious, invasive insect, a glimmer of hope is stealing into Ontario’s gloomy ash forests.

The emerald ash borer has already destroyed most of its host trees in southwestern Ontario, specifically Essex County where this creature entered the province nine years ago. On its own, and with help from humans moving firewood and other wood products, the brilliantly coloured beetle has expanded its range eastward past Toronto. Also infested are Sault Ste. Marie; the Ottawa area; Gatineau, Quebec; and, this year, Montreal. The pest is also widespread in Michigan, its North American entry point in the early 1990s, and has been recorded in 14 other states.

Bans on transporting wood from infested areas have had little impact. “Populations are about to explode,” says Taylor Scarr, forest entomologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Still, researchers are making progress on two fronts – earlier detection and containment. “We now have the tools we didn’t have a couple of years ago,” explains Scarr.

“We’re hoping there will be an equilibrium level achieved,” says Brian Hamilton, a regional manager with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which leads the control effort. “People will lose a lot of ash trees, but they won’t lose all of them.”

The borer, notable for its jewel-like green wings, crossed the Pacific Ocean in wooden packaging from China. In the absence of predators, the beetle thrived in Ontario’s forests, woodlots and gardens. It lays eggs on bark, and the resulting larvae burrow into the tree and, tunnelling in a serpentine pattern, eat the cells between bark and sapwood. The tunnels girdle the trunk, cutting the flow of nutrients, and the tree dies.

Until recently, researchers could detect infestations only by evidence such as the Dshaped holes the emerging adults left in the bark. By then, the borers were well established and the tree doomed, along with those nearby.

However, two new methods promise improved and quicker detection: One is a prism-shaped lure that traps borers on a sticky surface. The second, developed by Canadian scientist Krista Ryall, involves looking for borers beneath the bark of treetop branches – the pests’ usual attack point. This might allow them to be spotted before they infest the entire tree.

Early detection should improve containment, says Scarr. Borer-free trees in urban areas could be inoculated with the protective agent TreeAzin. Infested trees could be burned, nipping outbreaks in the bud and buying time for larger-scale controls.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is experimenting with predator wasps imported from Asia while Canadian scientists focus on native species of wasps. The predator wasp lays eggs on borer larvae, which its own larvae devour. The native wasp hunts and paralyzes adult borers, then carries them to its nest where it lays eggs on them. Hatching larvae consume the borers.

Researchers are also investigating whether a fungus found on several dead borers can be disseminated, Scarr says. It is hoped that the males will pick up the material from traps, then infect the many females they mate with in the few days before the fungus kills them.

“Everything that is a potential [control], scientists are trying to figure out if it can be used,” Hamilton says. “We have all the biology we need. The next step is figuring out what kills this beetle.”

From Toronto to Thunder Bay, Ontario Nature staff have been travelling across the province in search of snakes, salamanders and other creeping, crawling and slithering wildlife. As part of the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas project, conservation staff have conducted workshops, presentations and field surveys to increase awareness of and gather data about this unique group of creatures. The goal is to learn more about where reptiles and amphibians can be found and their population sizes, largely through observations that members of the public submit.

You do not need to travel far and wide to find these animals. Sometimes the best places to find snakes, salamanders, turtles and frogs are where you would least expect. On a walk around a small pond in downtown Thunder Bay this summer, I noticed something poking out of the vegetation. I thought it was a stick until “the stick” dropped below the surface of the water. Ten minutes and a metre or so of swampy muck later, I found myself face to face with a beautiful western painted turtle. I spotted four turtles swimming around the small pond and coming up for air. These adaptable reptiles can live in ponds on golf courses and in backyards, and even in large ditches in cities – in addition to more natural settings such as swamps, bogs and lakes.

The atlas project is now wrapping up its third season of fieldwork and outreach. In 2011 alone, a thousand people have attended Ontario Nature presentations and guided hikes at more than 20 different outreach events across the province. The atlas now has more than 550 registered participants keeping an eye out for this secretive group of critters. Nevertheless, more participants are always welcome! Ontario Nature’s database now contains more than 162,000 records. Despite being launched only in 2009, the Ontario Nature atlas project tally already matches the number of records the Natural Heritage Information Centre holds.

Please keep your eyes and ears open for snakes, turtles, frogs, salamanders and lizards. Report your sightings online at www.ontarionature.org/atlas. The information submitted will be used to influence conservation efforts across the province. Questions? E-mail jamesp@ontarionature.org for answers.