Environmental Corner/Information Advisory

Information Advisory

The West Oro Ratepayers’ Association is pleased to provide information and articles the may be beneficial to our members. If you should have any suggestions for future issues or would like to make comments please go to info@wora.ca.

We have recently found that Oro– Medonte now has certified superior pumping capabilities to fight fires. This certification comes from the Fire Underwriters Survey. A letter outlining this certification is available through the Township Offices. We have tried to make it easier for our members by providing a copy of this letter ( see attached to e mail ). By presenting this letter to your insurance company may allow you considerable savings on your annual premium.

Currently one maybe rated as XX kilometers distance away from a fire hall. A number of companies will give premium discounts if the property is within 8kms and some within 13kms of a fire hall, While one may already receive the firehall discount we would suggest one try presenting the attached letter for an even bigger savings. Some insurance agents may not be aware of these discounts and you may have to be persistent.

Should you receive the savings we would ask that you consider sending a portion of those savings to WORA so that we may have the adequate resources to fight the next inappropriate or poorly planned development.

Should you not wish to receive these mailings-please reply to this email by putting "Remove me from the WORA general mailing list", in the subject line.

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Environmental Corner

The West Oro Ratepayers’ Association is pleased to provide information and articles as they pertain to the Environment or outdoors in general. If you should have any suggestions for future issues or would like to make comments please go to info@wora.ca.

Twig to these: a trunkful of tree facts

by Jo Currie

Illegal aliens

Cottagers who bring firewood from home may be inadvertently spreading tree pests and diseases such as the Asian long-horned beetle and the emerald ash borer – both recent arrivals to Ontario. The latter has killed 10 million or more trees south of the border, and is currently confined to southwestern Ontarioand southeast Michigan. Buy firewood from a supplier in your local cottage area, park foresters urge, and be sure to ask where the wood came from.

Denim blues

What happens when a killer fungus and a killer insect get together? They zap a lot of trees – but can also create lumber with a distinctive blue pattern. Blue-stain fungus is carried into pine trees by bark beetles. White pine is one vulnerable target. (See question on p. 66.) The largest insect epidemic in British Columbia’s history, caused by a similar pest, the mountain pine beetle, has forced the harvest of millions of lodgepole pines. But the resulting blue-stained wood, dubbed “denim wood,” is now being marketed for everything from buttons to log houses – giving new meaning to the phrase “drop-dead gorgeous.”

Raising a stink

For us humans, the penetrating odour of commercial turpentine – made from the resins of several pine species native to the southeastern U.S. – is unmistakable, even at a distance. However, we’re olfactorily challenged compared with turpentine beetles (Dendroctonus spp.), whose organs of smell are specially designed for sniffing out the turps-like resins in your favourite pine, spruce, tamarack, or fir. All it takes is a small wound, or some environmental stress (perhaps the singeing heat from a campfire below), to release the scent so attractive to the beetles, who flock to the tree, further wounding it and releasing even more of the alluring aroma. Now that’s a vicious cycle.

Forest forensics

At the website for the Laurentian Forestry Centre in Sainte-Foy, Que., you can guide yourself through a step-by-step presentation to identify a tree, determine what part of it is affected, and then target the insect or disease that’s doing the damage. There are excellent side trips into Entomology 101 and Pathology 101, and a helpful glossary. Go to www.cfl.scf.rncan.gc.ca/collections-cfl/home.html.

Redo your roots

If the trees at your cottage are nearly all mature, you should be planting young ones to replace them. Alan Watson, director of The Arboretum at the University of Guelph, advises that small seedlings, 3–10 cm high, are the best size to replant. Ideally, you should dig them up from around your property or – with permission, of course – from a neighbour’s. You don’t want to introduce genetic stock that’s not adapted to local conditions, because it could cross-pollinate and eventually weaken local tree populations. Early September is a good time to plant, so seedlings can set new roots before frost. Plant more than you need – you can always thin them later.

If you can’t find local trees to transplant, you may be able to buy seedlings grownfrom seed sourced in your area, or at least close enough that they’ll be similar. Nurseries that grow trees from source-identified seed are listed in the 2004–2005 Native Plant Resource Guide, available from the Society for Ecological Restoration at www.serontario.org, and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources at (800) 667-1940.

A call for big elms

The Arboretum at the University of Guelph is looking for Ontario elms large enough to have been mature during the 1960s, when the first wave of Dutch elm disease (DED) swept the province. Some of these survivors are likely to have genetic resistance to the disease, making them candidates for The Arboretum’s Elm Recovery Project. Once a candidate elm is identified, cuttings from the tree are grafted onto rootstock and tested. Those that show good resistance are maintained in a seed-producing orchard, so that in 12 to 14 years, genetically diverse DED-resistant seeds can be distributed to growers.

The Arboretum would like to hear about any healthy elm with a circumference greater than 213 cm at chest height. If you know of one, or would like to be a donor to the project, call The Arboretum at (519) 824-4120, ext. 52113. To download an elm- reporting form, go to
www.uoguelphca/arboretum/SpProjects/elmreport.

Published in the June 2005 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

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Environmental Corner

WORA has always maintained that best Planning Practices should be employed in every development. The following was found on the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Web site . We feel it is a good primer on Planning Procedures. (Click on links below or right click and click on open hyperlink)

Citizens' Guides to Land-use Planning

Introduction

Land use planning affects almost every aspect of life in Ontario. It helps decide where in our communities homes and factories should be built; where parks and schools should be located; and where roads, sewers and other essential services should be provided.

Land use planning means managing our land and resources. It helps each community to set goals about how it will grow and develop and to work out ways of reaching those goals while keeping important social, economic and environmental concerns in mind. It balances the interests of individual property owners with the wider interests and objectives of the whole community.

Good planning leads to orderly growth and the efficient provision of services. It touches all of us and helps us to have the kind of community we want.

But often we don't see how it affects our lives and property each day. And it often seems confusing. A series of Citizens' Guides has been prepared to help you understand how the land use planning process works in Ontario. They are intended to give general information only and are not an interpretation of the Planning Act or any other act. You should refer to the legislation for specific requirements and procedures. The titles of the guides are:

Links to other pages...

Disclaimer

6. Ontario Municipal Board

7. Northern Ontario

8. Building Permits

9. The Plan Review and Approval Process

10. Making mediation work for you

Reprinted from the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs—October 2008

Should you not wish to receive these mailings-please reply to this email by putting "Remove me from the WORA general mailing list", in the subject line.

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Environmental Corner

The West Oro Ratepayers’ Association will be doing the following deputation to Oro– Medonte
Council on:

Wednesday November 12, 2008 at 7:00pm

WE WOULD ENCOURAGE MEMBERS TO ATTEND AND SUPPORT YOUR EXECUTIVE!

Deputation to the Oro-Medonte Council by the West Oro Ratepayers Association

November 2008

We are here speaking on behalf of the West Oro Ratepayers Association. WORA has a mailing list of 300 families and well over 130 paid members, but we try to represent the best interests of everyone who lives between Barrie, the 12^th line, Horseshoe Valley Road and Lake Simcoe, members or not.

I am here to talk with you about the importance of some new laws for everyone who lives in and around Lake Simcoe. The economic stability of the area and the natural ecosystems which support the lake hang in the balance.

Oro-Medonte Council will be asked to submit a brief regarding support for the proposed Lake Simcoe Protection Act and Plan some time this fall. WORA and many of your constituents will be urging you to do the right thing and support the purpose of Bill 99: “An Act to protect and restore the ecological health of the Lake Simcoe watershed and to amend the Ontario Water Resources Act in respect of water quality trading.”

Recent initiatives such as the Greenbelt Act, Places to Grow Act, Clean Water Act and the Source Protection planning initiatives have been positive, but don’t make the mistake of believing that the Lake is now on the mend. Lake Simcoe is in trouble. I have provided a separate sheet outlining just some of the significant threats to our lake.

We want to make it clear here that the health of Lake Simcoe is absolutely bound to the economic health of our municipality. If the Lake continues to decline, tourism, cottaging, fishing and boating will also decline along with the economic spinoffs. When Oro-Medonte Council makes its submission to the Provincial Government about the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, the West Oro Ratepayers Association urges you to request the legislation include following seven essential elements:

1. A recreational policy that limits destructive activities and encourages sustainable ones.

2. No significant shoreline alteration and stricter controls on boathouse construction.

3. Preservation of natural areas that must cover 40 percent of the watershed with as much high quality natural cover as possible such as interior forests.

4. A policy that ensures a 100-metre buffer zone on shorelines and rivers (known as riparian corridors) precluding developments or changes damaging to the ecosystem.

5. A ten percent surface impermeability limit that supports ecosystem health and cold water fish.

6. Protection measures that have adequate and sustained funding.

7. Protection measures that are stringently enforced with a practical, fast-moving system.

Thank you for your time. Our delegation would be pleased to answer any questions you might have.

The West Oro Ratepayers Association

Some of the Current Threats to Lake Simcoe

The Lake has no recreation policy, no consistent shoreline management policy and, despite being perhaps the most intensively studied Lake in North America, will have no broad scale plan for protection until the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan is implemented.

Rapid growth in South Simcoe is in conflict with protecting the health of the Lake. An additional 250,000 people are expected to be added to the current population to reach the provincial target of 667,000 by 2031. Many expect the real increase could be double. The Lake will not survive this increase without careful management. All municipalities need to develop and adhere to a sustainable growth policy.

There are numerous large developments proposed for the Lake, but it is probably already above sustainable capacity for shoreline development and recreation. No matter what stage they are at in approvals, the new Lake Simcoe Protection Act should apply to all these developments.

The Assimilative Capacity Study model predicts an increase of 25 percent in phosphorus loading to an average of 82.5 tonnes per year in the committed future growth scenario for Lake Simcoe. This assumes similar precipitation patterns as occurred during the period from 1997 to 2004 and exceeds the current loading target for Lake Simcoe of 75 tonnes. The new phosphorus load target, based on scientific advice from the provincially-appointed science advisory committee, is likely to be much lower.

When more than ten percent of a lake’s shoreline is paved or covered in concrete, its ability to support cold water fish and general ecological health begins to be impaired. The impervious area in the Lake Simcoe area is currently at 15 percent and scheduled to increase.

WORA opposes in principle any ammendments to the Oro -Medonte Official Plan that would allow development (urban sprawl) outside of designated settlement areas. Development that converts natural wooded lands to a subdivision is contrary to Provincial Policy Statements and the County Official Plan while providing no benefit to Oro-Medonte. WORA would like to see Council impose a development freeze until the Lake Simcoe Protection Act is in place to ensure future projects meet the new standards.

There are 43 species at risk in the watershed. If we continue to destroy habitat as we are now, this list will grow.

Between 7,000 and 10,000 motor boats use Lake Simcoe every summer, but no one knows what the Lake’s ecological carrying capacity is for boat traffic. A developer wants to add another 1,000 slips at Big Bay Point, but the Lake may already be over capacity for boat traffic.

Many WORA members are concerned about the proliferation of large “cigar boats” on the Lake. These boats use large amounts of fuel and the noise disturbs both wildlife and residents over large distances.

Submitted by the West Oro Ratepayers Association, November 2008

Should you not wish to receive these mailings-please reply to this email by putting "Remove me
from the WORA general mailing list", in the subject line.

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