Author: admin

4 Dec 2018 7:30 PM

Canada’s UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves are all unique, facing differing challenges but all trying to find sustainable, innovative solutions to help human communities and ecosystems thrive.

Yvonne Drebert, Documentary Film & Television Producer, and Director Zach Melnick, creators of “The Bruce” documentary, showcased SeasNow at work on Season 2 of “Striking Balance,” they travelled coast to coast over 6 months, sourcing stories of the peoples living in UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves and how those residents seek to balance economic growth and environmental needs.

Yvonne and Zach would drive to one location, stay for 2 to 3 weeks to film and then drive to the next locale. Finally, returning to their basement studio at their home in Miller Lake, they are now into editing the TVO series.

Each Biosphere has differing capacity, geographic characteristics and varying interpretations on what they should do. However, these groups provide a network for learning from each other and sharing ideas aimed at sustainable solutions to working and thriving in nature.

Yvonne

Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia suffered years of conflict over clear cut logging which destroyed the ability of giant Red cedars to regenerate, damaged salmon habitats and denuded the land. This “War of the Woods” protest against logging, one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history, culminated in the creation of a Tribal Park (an indigenous watershed management area). With a 500 year view for an economic diversification strategy, the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations peoples are producing value added products such as canoes and at the same time teaching these traditional skills to the next generation.

previewed 3 clips from Season 1:

Over 164 Grizzlies live in Waterton Biosphere Reserve, and with the bears being increasingly protected in Alberta, ranchers have to find new ways to coexist with them. The Biosphere has an active role in finding solutions to decreasing conflict. Drawing from Parks Canada’s experiences with Black Bears, the Biosphere has introduced dead animal bins with bear proof doors and raised grain hopper bins, contributing to a 95% reduction in bear problems. Key to this program is offering a compensation package to farmers/ranchers who lose livestock to bears.

On the Bras d’Or Lake of Cape Breton Island, a parasite ravaged 90% of the oyster population. Both traditional Mi’kmaq knowledge and modern science are being applied to create disease resistant oysters and offer a viable livelihood for the human inhabitants.

Yvonne and Zach are working on Season 2, one segment will feature our very own Niagara Escarpment Biosphere. Filming will start in the new year. They are open to story ideas for this segment (yvonne@strikingbalance.ca).

You can stream Season 1 from the TVO’s website (https://tvo.org/programs/striking-balance).

30 DAYS FROM EGG TO FLIGHT 5 SEP 2018 7:30PM

Presented by Anne James. Article by Barbara Bobo

“C’est Quoi? ” A puffy jacket made of milkweed down? It’s true, “C’est vrai!” A Quebec company, Quartz, has teamed with 100 farmers in Quebec and six in Vermont to sell parkas stuffed with milkweed down in 275 stores in 25 countries. “Incroyable”. But a great idea — and a terrific idea for saving the monarch butterflies host plant. We all catch our breath when we see a big beautiful monarch float by. Recently threatened along with many of our pollinators, monarchs can be raised in your own backyard or in your own home. All it takes, according to Anne James, who has raised over 1,OOO at her Monarch way station in Lion’s Head, is milkweed. It does not take a lot of expensive equipment, no special license, they do not need shots, nor do they need to go for walks. But there is work involved if you become attracted to butterfly husbandry: Finding the tiny eggs on the host plant, cutting the milkweed plants back to stimulate the growth of the young leaves to feed the caterpillars and collecting leaves and green pods to rear them. Rearing in captivity provides protection from predators such as stink bugs, red ants, larger caterpillars and earwigs to name a few. You may also want to grow milkweed in your flower beds — they are stunning plants with fragrant lilac blooms. At the Sept. meeting of the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group, Anne took us through a colourful slide presentation and explained her simple equipment through the 30-day evolution from egg, to caterpillar, to the magical chrysalis stage — the birth of the butterfly — to the climax of the release of fully fledged butterflies. She did not “nectar” coat the details of the day-to-day care. Why do this at all, why not let nature raise them? Well, it is simple. The decline of the butterflies and bees as well, has its roots in agricultural practices and urbanization. Pesticides, which quash the wild plants needed to propagate, milkweed in the monarch’s case, and loss of habitat have decreased the population and hampered its return at the end of the year to Michoacán-Mexico, about two hours west of Mexico City. One of our audience members had visited to see the miraculous sight of hundreds of millions of the butterflies clumped on giant pines, obliterating the foliage. Perhaps a bucket list item for those who travel to Mexico? Why save the monarchs, or any of our pollinators for that matter? When we save the wild things, plant or animal, we save ourselves. Whether a food source or a soul saving source, we need them. We are a part of the ecosystem as well. None of us can really know the importance of every bit of nature’s puzzle, but we can enjoy some of the more beautiful aspects of nature and the monarch certainly reigns supreme!

HOW LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY CAN WORK TOGETHER TO PRESERVE THE ENVIRONMENT 1 AUG 2018 7:30PM

Karen Farbridge talks about her experiences as a mayor of Guelph. 

As a youth Karen Farbridge announced she would be studying big carnivorous cats in Africa. Instead, she went from studying toxic salmon in polluted streams in her home province to studying toxic carnivorous characters in local politics! In fact, she tamed both citizens and city councillors using careful strategies of listening, humility, understanding priorities and setting goals where all could prosper.

Farbridge, former mayor of Guelph, was guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group in Lion’s Head on Aug. 1. Her topic: How local government and community can work together to preserve the environment. Guelph activists inspired Farbridge, who has a doctorate in biology, to leave the research lab in 1993 and work on local issues. When she approached city council with an allotted five-minute presentation on conservation, she was met with a boisterous reprimand from one member of council who said she was wasting their time. This only strengthened her resolve. She was 10 years ahead of her time with her conservation plan, she reckons, but she could see that the slogan, Think Globally, Act Locally, was the right path for her and her city. Working with engaged citizens and community leaders on issues of social justice and sustainability, she quickly realized the status quo works very hard to “do it the way it has always been done” to protect its self interest.

She had to convince community leaders that water conservation, protecting farmland and groundwater, waste management through composting, protecting natural heritage sites, and other sustainability programs would benefit everyone. Having studied the issues she was proposing and having examples of communities that had involved themselves in these programs helped.

She noted that a local reporter came up with this line about her plans: “The government may have no business in your bedroom, but it does want to know what you do in the bathroom.” Dealing with libertarians, conservatives, evangelicals, tax fighters, contrarians, and others of various stripes is the stuff of city council meetings. Finding common ground is key. The city of Guelph managed to construct an eight-point plan for sustainability that would serve all of the people. Toilet and washing machine rebates, grey water systems, built-in rain water collection systems pitched to developers would mean more growth for their business if the taxes remained reasonable to new home builders. Leaving streams open for enjoyment instead of enclosing them was an ecological as well as economical move.

With four political campaigns and three terms as mayor, her advice, “Be clear about your values, be humble about what you don’t know, listen with empathy, and be open to change.” She believes a democracy should reflect a balance of gender and ethnic diversity on all government levels.

COSTS, EMISSIONS AND MUCH MORE… 2 MAY 2018 7:30PM

At BPEG’s May meeting Tim Matheson gave us some facts and insights on electric vehicles, providing information and entertaining us all at once. Tim is the owner of a Chevy Bolt and, as he says, has little or no technical knowledge of the workings of the vehicle but understands well the likely cost savings to his pocketbook and the potential benefits to our environment.  Tim started with a bit of history, reminding us that the idea of electric vehicles has been around a long time, the first electric car being made in 1922. However the battery technology, which had not advanced sufficiently and the (at the time) lower cost of fossil fuels led the auto industry down the path of gas powered vehicles.

 In answer to the audiences anticipated questions, Tim had prepared a number of very accessible charts comparing the costs of his current vehicle over a ten-year period and the expected costs of his new Bolt over ten years. There is an amazing difference! His current Honda CRV (which is relatively fuel efficient) has required approximately $46,000 – the cost for electricity for the Bolt will be between $5,000 & $11,000 depending on the whether it is charged at high or low peak times. – A side note here – in order for the electrical grid to provide the necessary baseline of energy much electricity goes unused at night, making this an ideal time to recharge your electric car. Due to the low maintenance costs of this type of vehicle there are many other savings – no exhaust system or radiator to maintain or oil changes, less braking costs due to the regenerative powering of the brakes and the fact that the resistance of the engine takes care of much of the braking. When you include the initial cost of the vehicles, which are approximately the same, the total over the 10 years looks like this: Honda CRV $103,949 – Chevy Bolt $52,437. Plus currently there are substantial government incentives depending on the vehicle – for the all-electric Bolt it is up to $14,000.

 So then what about the space in the vehicle – Tim’s experience is that there is plenty of room for the driver and plenty of storage space as well as passenger seating for three in the back seat.

 And how far can it go on a full charge? – approximately 300 km, depending of course on how one drives and the weather conditions.

And what is the cost for charging? And where are the charging stations?

Currently there is no cost to charge at a charging station but this will likely change with time. There are 3 types of chargers, each working at a different rate of charging. More and more are appearing in various places – there is one at Walmart in Owen Sound and more can be accessed in a variety of locations. If one has a station in their garage, this can be used at night when electricity is cheapest.

 And what of the environmental impact? By Tim’s calculations, replacing one gas vehicle with an all-electric one we are saving the carbon equivalent of 40 acres of new forest/year and helping to reduce the amount of CO2 being absorbed by and polluting the oceans.

 Now, what if all at once every vehicle in North America (300,000,000) were electric – there is the possibility to save the carbon equivalent of 12 TRILLION acres of forest – that’s 10 times the surface area of the continental USA.

 So now you have more questions about these vehicles – listen to Tim’s talk on the BPEG website www.bpeg.ca and search out information on the internet – we all need to be informed.

APPLYING THE LIMITS OF ACCEPTABLE CHANGE TO TOURISM MANAGEMENT 7 FEB 2018 7:30PM

On February 7, 2018, residents and business owners from across the peninsula, as well as members of Chippewas of Nawash and North Bruce Peninsula councils, gathered to hear an update on the Sustainable Tourism Action Plan.

To hear an audio recording of the meeting click here.

Megan Myles, representing the Sustainable Tourism Steering Committee, offered a overview of the Draft Action Plan compiled by the consulting firm Twenty31.

The plan aims to develop a clear locally defined vision for sustainable tourism. A survey of a full spectrum of tourism, business, community and governmental stakeholders identified some positives – including the fact that NBP is “one of the strongest volunteer community” Twenty31 has worked with. With the obvious problems such as noise, congestion, garbage, limited infrastructure and amenities, Megan states “the negative impacts and continued tourism growth without having any sort of management can be catastrophic and cause the degradation of natural, social and cultural assets.” However, she sees an incredible opportunity to position North Bruce as a leader in sustainable tourism, as well as create an environment to attract sustainably-minded entrepreneurs.

Twenty 31 recommends: 1) a more robust tourism governance model, including creation of a tourism advisory group who are empowered by a charter to implement the plan, 2) the hiring of a Tourism Development Manager, and 3) appropriate financial resources to implement initial projects.

Once these resources are in place, the plan advocates for a visitor management framework known as the Limits of Acceptable Change, a framework developed by the US Parks Service and comparable to the framework used by Parks Canada, locally and federally.

This framework would allow us to identify what undesirable impacts are occurring or may be occurring, develop indicators to monitor these impacts, set limits or thresholds of acceptable change and actively apply direct or indirect management responses.

“How much is too much?” is not the question to be asking, since it is impossible to arrive at that number, but rather focus on the desirable environmental, social, cultural, political and visitor experience conditions.

Recognizing that the negative impacts are not equally distributed through all parts of the peninsula and for the purposes of understanding and describing the distribution of tourism impacts, Twenty 31 segregated the peninsula into the following “zones”: Bruce Peninsula National Park; Fathom Five National Marine Conservation Area; Downtowns – Tobermory & Lions Head; Rural; and Highway Corridors.

Undesirable behaviour occurs in predictable patterns and if we understand this through research, we can guide management with proactive strategic planning which would mitigate the undesirable behaviours and maximum the benefits from tourism.

Megan used the example of her Green Tourism certification for the Fitz Hostel. She keeps track of the volume of garbage and recycling she produces in relation to the number of guests. This monitoring gives her baseline data from 2017 to compare with 2018, so she can set goals to minimize waste.

By establishing baseline conditions and limits of thresholds, we will be able to monitor the data and determine what impacts need prioritizing for mitigation given the reality of financial and personnel constraints.

In the breakout sessions, eight groups considered what the limits of acceptable change are and offered their comments.

A key interest of the audience was how to deal with this year’s visitors, offer quality vs. quantity, the sentiment being, “We have to get this right.”

One group felt “We need to dial back 5 years…look at those numbers and consider how best to manage those numbers.”

Thorsten Arnold, a local farmer and formerly of Eat Local Grey Bruce, indicates he would like to offer culinary experiences, but not sure how to attract the crowd heading to the Grotto.

A Tobermory group who described themselves as being “on the front lines” would like to see more activities to engage the 18- 35 year old crowd.

Megan sees an opportunity to build on the “You are Here” Manifesto campaign produced last year to encourage desirable visitor behaviours.

Tony Keeshig, Economic Development Officer for the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, said, “We are here to protect the land and water, building more parking lots is going in the wrong direction.” He would like to see an interpretive centre around Wiarton, maybe even in Toronto, where information sessions about the entire Bruce Peninsula could be offered and local merchants could set up a kiosk to sell their wares.

Jeff Corner cited advice from Roger Brooks, a destination development and marketing expert,
“If we consider ourselves a premier destination we need at least 10 top restaurants; 10 top activities and 10 top accommodators.”

Other suggestions included traffic circles, speed bumps, more police presence, “taking the car out of the equation” in downtown Tobermory and pre-booking for accommodations and activities.

To hear more of this presentation, search for the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group on YouTube.

The community was invited to email feedback about the draft plan by Feb. 14. A link to the draft plan can be found at www.rto7.ca/Public/Resources/Municipality-of-Northern-Bruce-Peninsula

The final plan will be completed by the end of March.

ALL HANDS ON DECK 6 DEC 2017 7:30PM

An Invasive Species task force has been formed with comprehensive representation from all levels of government, conservation authorities, non-governmental organizations and community members on the peninsula. The job of the taskforce is to map, prioritize and manage active populations of invasive species as well as to be on the lookout for new invasions on the Bruce.

Tyler Miller, Park Canada’s Resource Management Officer for the Bruce Peninsula, presented first: Invasive plants occupy and are invading all our ecosystems, above and below water. Southern Ontario contains the highest number – one hundred and thirty-nine – of invasive plant species in the country that have originally come from Europe or Asia. Of these, forty-nine species have invaded the Bruce Peninsula.

Miller defined invasive species as those that pose alarming ecological, economic, and social threats. These plant species cause irreversible damage to the environment, leave lasting scars on the landscape and are recognised to be one of the foremost causes of declining biodiversity globally. Moreover, cleanup is costly for government, industry and households. For example, Tyler said, invasive plants cost the agriculture and forest industries in Canada about $7.3 billion annually.

Esme Batten, Coordinator, Conservation Biology for the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula of the Nature Conservancy of Canada described the projects currently underway to control phragmites – a particularly aggressive form of reed – across the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula.

Esme cautioned us all: Do not be a pathway for these terrestrial invaders. But, working on prevention, early detection and eradication of invasive plant species is the most economical and effective means of invasive plant management.

She said that it is important to ensure new weed species or vegetative reproductive plant parts are not introduced into a new area. Here’s where individuals may play a role in identifying new weeds and working with local organizations to deal with new infestations to eradicate them as soon as possible.

A take-away from the meeting was that preventing the establishment and spread of invasive species may be one of the most valuable actions that we can do for conservation. Contact Esme Batten at esmebatten@gmail.com if you identify an invasive plant or wish to volunteer on eradication of invasive plant species.