Works at Works

One of the unofficial duties I perform for the Task Force is to browse the agenda of city committees and look for items that are pertinent to the Don. Every month I dig through agendas for Works, Planning, Parks, and the various community councils that might impact the Don watershed. So far this month the Works Committee has the juiciest items. They are:

WWFMMP Implementation Advisory Committee

There's a mouthful. The city is creating a new committee and inviting interested groups, including the Bring Back the Don, to appoint members. It should be noted that the city was going to appoint all the members until the Task Force insisted that we get our own appointee. Now of course everybody gets a piece of the pie.

York Region's Big Pipe

This one is a little vague on its impact to the Don. Basically it is saying there is no direct impact on the Don and the Humber to the sewer construction. What it doesn't address is the indirect affect of draining water from the Oak Ridges moraine. This water might have flowed into the Don. This project could affect base flows of several rivers but there is no data to prove that.

Source protection

Here's an interesting one. The city along with the TRCA is moving to protect water sources within the watershed. The city realizes that protecting water sources of the rivers is as important as protecting the rivers themselves (which belies the previous document, does the one hand know what the other is doing?).

Budget for source protection

Creating a budget for the aforementioned item.

Notes from the EA front lines

With apologies to Guns n' Roses...

Welcome to the Environmental Assessment

We got evaluation n' consultation

We got everything you want

As long as its technically feasible

We are the people that can find

Whatever the Don River may need

If you got the money honey

We got you a process.

I went to one of the public forums for the Don Mouth Naturalization last night. It is one of the first of many meetings to decide what to do with the mouth of the Don. From the simple vision “Let's build a marsh at the mouth of the Don” we get 2 year process of collecting all the ideas, engaging the stakeholders, mapping the infrastructure, integrating it into existing planning projects, and then after all that's done, build a marsh at the mouth of the Don. Not necessarily the best approach but one that is mandated by the lengthy environmental assessment process. At least the consultants and facilitators are happy.

Attending the event were about 60 people. This was made up mostly of the usual suspects, meaning environmentalists and other community activists who have an interest in the outcome. There were also a few community members who have quite a different viewpoint on what gets done because they will have to live with it (literally).

I forgot that meetings like this brings out a few people with odd perceptions of reality. (OK, wackos). During the workshop portion of the meeting we sat around tables and discussed a number of questions such as “Are you more comfortable with the evaluation approach or the consultation approach?”. One woman at my table continually muttered gibberish about property taxes and the CBC strike. While we considered challenges and opportunities for the Don mouth naturalization she declaimed that all this would become irrelevant because of Bill 169. What has this got to do with transportation safety? Sorry lady, outside of scope.

So the process continues. I imagine many people will become weary with it all long before it ends. Fortunately groups like the Task Force have the staying power to see it through.For me, I just want to see some cattails growing at the mouth of the river.

Blogging 101

After talking to a couple of people who read this blog, it surprised me that they were not aware of some of the basic features. So here is a brief tutorial:

Pictures: the pictures posted here may seem a bit small but you can click on them to view a larger version.

Comments: at the bottom of every post is a link that says "n Comments" where n is a number, usually zero. This feature allows you to make a reply to the post which everyone can see. You can reply anonymously or enter your name or add in a link to your own blog. The important thing here is that you can add in your own 2 cents worth. I try to reply to every comment so a dialogue can be started.

So here's to happy blogging!

Fall Newsletter

Twice a year the Task Force publishes a newsletter. This is our primary vehicle for advertising our activities and events. No one knows how effect it is, if it's reaching the right people, or if anyone actually reads it. As part of the city we aren't allowed to collect survey information - privacy laws you know... Actually we could try but the approval process is so labryinthine it's not worth the effort.

Nevertheless, the newsletter has been published and will be mailed out soon. In this edition we highlight the October 1st wet weather flow workshop (see previous post), Green Heron and Kestrel sightings as well as our usual list of walks and plantings, sponsor thankyous, etc. My new online section on wetlands is mentioned along with three of my photos.

One of the advantages of the internet is electronic publishing. An advanced copy in PDF format is available on our website.

Wet Weather Flow Workshop

It's Labour Day and summer's over (yikes!). But for the Don that means that fall events will start soon. Already the Task Force has published its schedule of planting events and walking tours. One event in particular that I feel needs to be highlighted is a workshop that we are organizing. It is called the Wet Weather Flow Management Workshop. Through a grant from the Toronto Conservation Authority (TRCA), we are offering a seminar on how home owners can do their bit to reduce wet weather flow by retaining water on their property.

Easy solutions are available but more education is needed. Did you know that interlocking brick is as impermeable as concrete if not installed properly? Did you know that grass lawn does not hold much water? The seminar hopes to answer some of these questions. Participants should leave with a greater awareness of the wet weather flow problem and some useful ideas that they can use reduce runoff from their property.

The workshop is being held on Oct 1 at Todmorden Mills. Starting at 12:30 PM, participants will be led through a series of seminars talking about a variety of topics. After the workshops there will be a native wildflower planting in the neighbouring nature preserve.

You can register by email at donworkshops@hotmail.com.

Deer Video

I just put a video of a deer walking through Crothers' Woods on the Friends of the Don East website. The video is 3.7M in size and it's only 8 seconds long. There is probably some video compression routine I can run but I am new to video files so this will have to do. It downloads fine on my high speed connection but you may be waiting awhile if you're only dial-up.

The video was taken on a walk through the woods with city staff and Councillor Jane Pitfield in tow. The subject of the walk was a perennial favourite - mountain biking. Ms. Pitfield would like to see the bikers go away and leave her forest alone. Fortunately, city staff is being a little more patient and is actually trying to work with the bikers to build sustainable trails. You can read my trail building article on the Task Force website from last year to see how this is happening.

Back to the deer... as we were stopped at a trail intersection, the deer popped out of the woods about 10 metres away from us and casually continued on its way. It wasn't even perturbed by our presence. Since more deer are making their way through the Don corridor and starting to overwinter this may be a more common sight.