undervalued green assets?

"Unless the world goes completely carbon neutral by 2100 -- meaning carbon dioxide emissions are being removed from the atmosphere at the same rate they're being put in -- we face severe consequences...."If you want to meet your best natural ally in the fight against air pollution and global warming, look at the nearest tree. ===> read all of blog posted to Shirt Tales.

redirect to main blog

Do visit my main blog as RR is no longer posting to La Grande Riviere?
Use this link to Shirt Tales blog www.forsythkitchener.blogspot.com

Today's blog "runaway growth" is found at this link:

http://www.forsythkitchener.blogspot.com/

Photo copyright Sandamara Images 2006: Kitchener's Huron Natural Area located within the environmentally sensitive Strasburg Creek watershed-- also undergoing development pressures.

soil basics*

For starters, this graph from left to right:

Before European settlement, all of these lands were covered in dense forests and rain water either moved into the air (evapotranspiration) or into groundwater/interflow. As the forests were cleared, the amount of groundwater began to decrease significantly depending on land use--until where land has been totally covered over with impervious surface, there is none filtering through to replenish groundwater supplies! Easy to see the impact our new subdivisions with huge houses on small lots or the mushroom-style smaller detached houses with a handkerchief lawn on tiny 29 foot lots have on our shrinking groundwater supply. With all that runoff, no wonder the Region is proposing a stormwater tax to cover the increasing infrastructure costs!

Soil stores & regulates water flow, thus naturally maintaining flow rates and water cycles year round. The uppermost soil layer traps most of the rainfall. When this layer becomes saturated, some of the moisture works its way through the more porous sections of the lower soil layers. This process filters rainfall and stores water for long periods of time.

Traditional suburban development has a negative impact on the natural hydrologic cycle. When the initial soil and vegetation layers are replaced by impervious surfaces, moisture flows immediately off-site and into storm-water retention ponds and storm drains. Very little water flows into underground reservoirs (aquifers). Because rainfall flows off-site so quickly, there is no chance of rainwater sinking deeper into the aquifers..

Development on Waterloo moraine involves smoothing out the most extreme hills & removing the till cap (cf. photo of grading operation above). Inherent danger is that there will be holes left that will allow contamination (road salt) to seep into the aquifer.

2006 proposal re storm tax: user fee to cover cost of diverting stormwater into area creeks and rivers; rates based on area of property that is paved or occupied by buildings. More of either impervious surface increases the amount of runoff that goes into the stormwater system.

Need to determine the ideal amount of development that can be built on the land while sustaining the natural environment. The maximum amount of development is expressed as the percent of the watershed that can be covered by impervious surfaces. Essentially this is the development capacity of the watershed. (City of Hamilton Planning and Development).

Rapid population growth puts extra pressure on municipal supply systems (water source and storage capacities).

"A generation ago, many of us had a direct connection to a farm, but
today's generation is disconnected from farms and farming.
We've lost touch with out roots,
in a literal and figurative sense."
-- Carl Hiebert, author of Gift of Wings (1986)

* Photos L to R: soil being removed from top of moraine and moved elsewhere in process of grading a subdivision; Baden farmer's field that has been turned into subdivision since that photo was taken; Wilmot upland woodlot still relatively untouched although the woodlot is not large enough to shelter forest interior breeding species.

* originally posted to Shirt Tails II 08 May 2006 to which
Anonymous said... I say briefly: Best! Useful information. Good job guys.

wet and green*

Blenheim Township wetland near confluence of Alder Creek with Nith River spring 2006.
Sandamara Images 0615-19

Will this summer be wet and green or dry and brown?

The answer to that question is related to the issue of climate warming and covered in a report
prepared a few years ago: R. Kreutzwiser et al. "Drought Sensitivity of Municipal Water Supply
Systems in Ontario," The Great Lakes Geographer, Vol 9 No. 2, 2003.

According to the researcher, climate warming:

* may increase the frequency of drought, i.e. a prolonged dry spell;
* result in reduced streamflows and groundwater recharge;
* lower Great Lakes water levels;
* alter seasonal water cycle (timing, intensity, duration);
* raise air and water temperatures;
* shorten duration of lake ice cover;
* Increase numbers of extreme storms, extreme precipitation events which affect erosion and
sedimentation
* decrease snow cover.
Drought sensitivity increases for those south-western Ontario communities with these
characteristics:

* reliance on ground water or river source;
* rapid population and/or industrial growth;
* increasing competition for ground water or river water.

The Region of Waterloo currently depends 75% on ground water and 25% on the Grand River
for its municipal water supply. With approximately 5 to 13 wells removed from the supply chain,
water restrictions normally issued during drought conditions or peak demand times have already
been instituted for the second summer in a row. This Region is currently leading the country in
housing starts and the real estate market continues to boom with customer demand for new single
detached homes.

According to the Kreutzwiser study referenced above: "Population growth increases the demand
on water system and lowers the water table. Regions with limited water storage capacity eg.
aquifers relative to demand may be particularly vulnerable to drought. That vulnerability is
increased when storage capacity drops below 60% of annual stream flow. Locations where
groundwater pumping rates considerably exceed recharge rates are especially vulnerable to
droughts. Water quality can also decline as result of reduced recharge."

Moreover, all of the following categories of water users increase the competition for water: golf
courses; sod farms;greenhouses/nurseries; agriculture i.e. crop irrigation; municipal water supply
@ 50%; dewatering & aggregate washing @ 24%. Who will have priority to take water
especially during peak demand periods?

Last spring when gardeners had been asked to carry buckets while other homeowners were
allowed to use a hose to fill their swimming pools, The Record ( editorial of 12 March 05) posed
these two questions:

1. Has [urban] growth outstripped [the regional] water supply?
2. "Should we putting the Waterloo moraine under development pressure when it serves such a
valuable water-recharge system?"

Kreutzwiser in the study cited above issued the following warning: "Urban drought clearly is
exacerbated by inappropriate development and wasteful water use practices." Other researchers
note that drought also decreases the wastewater assimilation capacity of the Grand River.
Observations such as the above led one concerned citizen to issue this call: "stop all urban
development until newly proposed underground aquifer system has been tested, commissioned,
and put into service" (G. Mitchell, Record 24 May 05 & cf Record editorial of 21 May 05
"Region is adding supply only as is necessary."

From a Regional report on demand and supply capacity of the regional water system, the
following numbers to consider: "daily capacity is 218 million litres per day; summer peak
demand between 218 and 238 million litres."

The irony in all of this: we live in the country that has the world's largest reserve of fresh water
supplies. And we can't manage this land's gifts so freely and abundantly given to us?

*A reposting of 09 May 2006 blog on effects of climate change to Shirt Tails II blog:

gone with the wind?

These photos were chosen to draw attention to the trend that sees the southwestern Ontario countryside losing thousands of acres of prime farmland each year. This issue is the subject of Margaret Walton's report, Agriculture in the Central Ontario Zone, Neptis Foundation 2003.

City of Waterloo Council will be holding a public review of the three controversial proposed developments to replace farmland on Monday 23 July 07, 7:00 p.m. Council Chambers. The post "gone with the wind?" deals with the subject of the ongoing loss of Ontario's prime farmland and can be found here:

www.forsythkitchener.blogspot.com

the three r's...research, reading, ans (w)riting...

Gentle readers, new visitors to this blog, herewith a quick overview of the various blogs I write:

To begin, all of these blogs have their origins in two seminal books that I read during the winter of 2003. The first was an academic study prepared by University of Waterloo that presented the case to have the Grand River designated as a national heritage river. That document approached the entire Grand River watershed as one system and reviewed the watershed's physical form and cultural heritage attributes. That book led directly into my reading of Putnam's seminal text on the physiographic regions of Southern Ontario. The two books led to numerous rambles of exploration throughout the Grand River watershed and to the creation of my first blog, La Grande Riviere to be found at www.grandriver.blogspot.com.

One outcome of those watershed rambles was my personal dismay at the unchecked urban sprawl taking place in the tri-cities of Waterloo, Kitchener, and Cambridge and the need to take action. Thus, when at one City of Waterloo Council meeting, a delegate I think of as our very own Erin Brokovich mentioned that the Owen EIS report contradicted itself, I took up the challenge to obtain a copy and to read and deconstruct this highly technical report. Many of the posts made to www.grandriver.blogspot.com provide summaries and links to the background research I did at that time.

Like a river rushing ever onwards, time moved on and brought with it new acquaintances and new commitments and so the need for a second blog. One of this community's heritage activists proposed a newsletter to focus on the Forsyth demolition issues: my second blog, Shirt Tales, www.forsyth.blogspot.com soon took all of my energies. As well, I set up two other blogs to store notes on other readings of mine. I have plans to collapse those other blogs later this summer and to move the posts to either the Grand River blog or the Shirt Tales blog.

For the most part, the Grand River blog was written for an audience of one-- a well-known and respected delegate to various Councils on regional environmental issues. I continue surprised by the number of visitors to that first blog as it is the Shirt Tales blog that has attracted its devoted following. Hence, most of my posts since summer of 2005 have been made to Shirt Tales. Thus, if you are looking for coverage of Hidden Valley you will find it in Shirt Tales.

Some of this week's blog visitors have been referred here in order to prepare for next week's City of Waterloo Council meeting. Rather daunting to find the Waterloo Moraine related posts? Like flipping through a 1,500 page book without chapter headings or an index? Hence these tips:

Check both blogs for the relevant research in one of two ways:

a) use the search function at top right hand corner of each blog to locate all blogs related to a particular subject by typing in key words such as "Waterloo moraine," "wetlands," "City of Waterloo" and the blogging software will very quickly bring up all posts related to that subject;

and/or

b) use the print preview option in order to call up a section of the archive in order to very quickly scroll through all posts during that time period-- a quick glance at photos and the lead paragraph should be enough to determine if the post is of interest.

For those who have the time, I would suggest the following reports to be extremely useful and worth reading:

1. Region of Waterloo RGMS document, Protecting Significant Moraines in Waterloo Region, available here:
http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/8f9c046037662cd985256af000711418/03D38C261628882E85256D280053291C/$file/Protecting%20Significant%20Moraines.pdf?openelement
2. Ken Ogilvie, Air Water and Soil Quality commissioned by the Neptis Foundation "for consideration by the Central Ontario Smart Growth Panel established by the Government of Ontario. Link here:
http://neptis.org/library/show.cfm?id=47&cat_id=9

In closing, gentle readers, thank you for your quiet support and unstinting encouragement of my blogging efforts. It means a lot.

Elizabeth aka Rambling Rose

boreal treasures; aspen, birch, caribou, diamonds,ducks/geese and tamarack...

"A letter signed by 1,500 scientists released yesterday in Ottawa [urged] all governments to act to protect the Boreal Forest. The scientists warned that the Boreal Forest – a garland of green in Canada that shields us against global warming – is clearly under serious threat from industrial logging and mining activities. It shields us from global warming by storing more carbon in its soils, forests and wetlands than any other ecosystem on the planet...In 2003, Mr. McGuinty promised to implement a land-use planning regime for the northern third of the province, an area that until now has been off limits to logging. So far he has failed to deliver on this promise, instead approving the massive DeBeers Victor Diamond Mine. The groups are also asking the government to protect significant areas of intact caribou habitat in the commercial forestry zone; a move that also would store large quantities of carbon that otherwise would contribute to global warming." (1)

The Victor Diamond Project is a massive diamond mine being proposed by the DeBeers diamond conglomerate in northeastern Ontario near Attawapiskat on James Bay. This region is part of one of the largest, intact wilderness areas left on earth and currently has no industrial development...The mine site would cover an area of 5,000 hectares. The open pit would be 220 metres deep and 1-2 kilometres wide. The ecological footprint of the mine (the area its operations will impact), however, is much larger. Up to 260,000 hectares -- an area roughly four times the size of the City of Toronto -- will be impacted by dewatering, the pumping of water out of the pit, which is likely to massively change water flows above and below ground throughout the area. There is a good chance that this project will be expanded if more diamonds are discovered in the region***... Environmental impacts include: 100,000 m3 of salty water will be pumped out of the pit each day into the Attawapiskat River. This is equivalent to 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools per day or 14,600 pools per year.2.5 million tonnes of rock would be processed (piled, crushed and dumped) each year.The area of the proposed mine and its associated infrastructure provides critical habitat for woodland caribou, a threatened species. Caribou are extremely sensitive to industrial activity and usually disappear from areas where it occurs. After the mine closes and the site is re-vegetated, studies say that "excellent habitat for moose" (shrubs and young forest) will be created, which also means that the habitat that previously supported caribou (older forest and bogs) will be diminished. This will result in the local extinction of caribou.....Debeers will exploit this non-renewable resource and get out. At the end of the mine's life -- in 15 years or less --- the people of the region will be left dealing with the impacts, such as damaged rivers and fisheries, depleted caribou herds, people trained in skills they can only use if they move away, huge disparities in income, and young people who no longer know the land. (2)

From the De Beers (A Diamond is Forever) website, the following information:

"In June 2005, the Attawapiskat First Nation voted in favour (85.5%) of ratifying the Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA). In August 2005, De Beers received approval by the Federal Minister of the Environment for the Victor Project Comprehensive Study Environmental Assessment (EA).**Construction of the mine began in February 2006, once the necessary permits were granted. The Victor Project will employ approximately 600 people during construction and 375 permanent positions will be created during mining and processing operations. The Victor mine will be the first diamond mine in Ontario and the second in Canada for De Beers." (3)

Notes: ** Table 8-38 Cumulative Effects Assessment-Natural Environment: 1) "Displacement of habitats potentially used by ungulates (mainly for caribou...); noise and other forms of general disturbance could adversely effect caribou" & the DeBeer's conclusion? " Effect not significant"???; 2) re migratory birds, "displacement of habitats (mainly fen and bog) at the Victor site, as a result of facility and infrastructure placement" & the DeBeer's conclusion? "effect not significant"???; ====> Aboriginal people in the James Bay Lowlands traditionally stock their freezers with ducks, geese, moose and caribou taken during the traditional spring and fall hunting seasons. One of Rambling Rose's most memorable meals was served to her by the chef at the Sakabaun ****: an appetizer of Arctic char flown in from Baffin Island followed by caribou stew.

elders also expressed concern that water quality would be negatively impacted and recalled: "In the mid-1950's, with the building of the radar....we're starting to see some of the side-effects in the area. My concern is that some 40 years down the line, when the mine closes, there may be effects....I see the problem left behind from the radar [editor's note: PCB's contaminating the water supply & elsewhere in the EA, removal of PCB contaminated soil from Fort Albany is documented in great detail}...Victor will affect water. Perhaps not right away, but maybe after closure."

Traditional teaching passed on via oral traditions: "My father told me that if you mistreat nature and kill the frog, there will be a day when you will not be able to drink the water. The frogs purify the water."

cf. "the Supreme Court of Canada defines Aboriginal rights as "an integral practice, custom, or tradition of the Aboriginal culture of the Concerned Aboriginal community. This right is defined within the context of the individual community and its historic (pre-contact traditions....Aboriginal rights are inherent.....Aboriginal and treaty rights normally require a land base sufficient to ensure their proper exercise...The taking of lands for other, incompatible purposes diminishes these rights." (pp 8-115-116 of comprehensive EA). (3)...."Potential disruptions to hunting and trapping acitivities could occur within and area of 750 sq km..." (p 8-118)..."Elders....[give high importance] to the maintenance of traditional skills and values. values include the holistic world view that sees people as part of the environment and responsible for its care, the spiritual and economic value placed on hunting, trapping and fishing, and on the use of traditional medicines, language retention, and the socio-political organization that give precedence to family-centre life and sharing, as well as decision-making by consensus." (p 8-118)

*** DeBeers EA indicates that 11 companies are exploring for diamonds in the immediate region adjacent to the Victor Project. Previous research done by RR revealed that diamond exploration is taking place in all lands north of TransCanada Highway 11; the impact of diamond mining in north-eastern Ontario at the James Bay frontier is comparable to the impact of oil and gas extraction in northern BC/Alberta & Yukon/North West Territories. Already the mighty Peace-Athabaska watershed system has been negatively impacted by the Fort McMurray oil tarsands development.

****Sakabaun is Mushkego Cree for traditional roast goose cooked on a spit over an open camp fire during hunting season. Photos and maps: ====> to follow

Sources: (1) CPAWS (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Protection Society, " Ontarians want forest protection in climate plan," 15 May 07 link:

http://cpaws.org/news/archive/2007/05/ontarians_want_forest_protecti.php
(2) Ontario Wildlands League "What is Victor Diamond Mine?"

http://wildlandsleague.org/display.aspx?pid=231&cid=233
(3) Debeers website

http://www.debeerscanada.com/files_2/mining.html
(4) Link to Environmental Assessment Report referenced in this blog:

http://www.debeerscanada.com/files_2/victor_project/victor_ea-report-2004-section-01.html

for the love of trees

Gentle reader, are you aware that Algonquin Provincial Park continues to be logged? This, the third largest provincial park in Ontario @ 763,310 ha, has the following primary land uses: 56% managed forest 424,550 ha; 22% other recreation (lakes, wetlands, rock outcrops, areas of concern reserves) 170,310 ha; 11.9% wilderness 90,475 ha; and 5.1% has been set aside as a nature reserve 39,250 ha.

Ontario Parks Board has recommended to the Minister of Natural Resources (1) the following:====> rest of post to be found here:

http://forsythkitchener.blogspot.com/2007/05/for-love-of-trees.html