Preserving the moraine with paint

The Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust (ORMLT), together with York Region artists, will be creating an art book to promote awareness of the moraine and showcase outstanding work by local artists.

The book will be released in October, to coincide with the Richmond Hill Studio Tour and Art Sale.

Artists may submit photographs of up to three paintings of the moraine completed this summer. ORMLT will arrange visits to secluded land trust properties for artists who wish to submit an entry. A jury of knowledgeable members of the arts community will determine which entries will be professionally photographed for publication in the book. ORMLT has contacted more than 50 art associations, councils and clubs from Niagara to Uxbridge to take part in this event.

ORMLT believes that visual artists have a unique opportunity to remind the public about the need to preserve our nature reserves. Producing this book is one way for ORMLT to carry out its mission, which is to ensure significant moraine properties, including lands for the Oak Ridges trail, are protected in perpetuity through strategic land securement and related long term stewardship.

The Oak Ridges Moraine Art Book will be available at art exhibitions, environmental events and through the ORMLT office.

For more information, call (905)751-1385 or email organizer Herbert Pryke at hpryke@sympatico.ca

Oak Ridges Moraine art book; Preserving the moraine with paint.

Caring for the Moraine workshop

Oak Ridges Moraine landowners may wonder, "What can I do to help?" Rural, non-farm residents can refer to a new environmental property self-assessment publication created to assist their efforts.

The Rural Landowner Stewardship Guide is fashioned after the successful Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) which helped farmers identify ways to enhance environmental features on their property, but targeted at non-farm landowners with properties generally greater than two acres.

The Caring for the Moraine Project's Rice Lake Plains area partners are hosting a workshop on this guide for residents living on the Oak Ridges Moraine in the Rice Lake Plains (which stretches from Harwood east to Carmel and from Roseneath south to Baltimore). The workshop will be 9 a.m. to 12:30 p..m. Saturday, April 5 at Fenella Hall with lunch and an optional field trip to follow.

Landowners will receive and work through the guide, learn about stewardship and hear from local stewardship organizations.

The Rural Landowner Stewardship Guide helps landowners evaluate their property and identify areas where they might positively impact the local environment. The guide is a series of worksheets that landowners start working through during a short workshop.

Worksheets cover topics ranging from wells and septic systems to managing forest, stream and wetland ecosystems.

After the workshop, landowners can complete the rest of the guide and create an action plan for environmental improvements to be undertaken on their property. Landowners can take advantage of technical expertise both at the workshop and afterwards to complete the guide. The guide also contains valuable stewardship tips and resource information.

The Rural Landowner Stewardship Guide for Ontario Landscape was produced by environmental partners including the Canadian Water Network, Environment Canada, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ontario Nature, Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition, Wildlife Habitat Canada, and the University of Guelph.

To register for the workshop, contact Ashley Wilson at Lower Trent Conservation, 613-394-3915 ext. 225 or through e-mail at ricelakeplains@ltc.on.ca .

Other workshops coming up, all on May 10, include: birds of the Rice Lake Plains at Alderville Community Centre, forest ecology and early morning bird hike at Millbrook Community Centre, and a family day celebration at Laurie Lawson Outdoor Education Centre in Cobourg. Contact Ms. Wilson for more details or visit www.moraineforlife.org for more events.

The Caring for the Moraine's Rice Lake Plains Partners include Alderville First Nation, Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority, Lower Trent Conservation, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Northumberland County Forest, Northumberland Land Trust, Northumberland Stewardship Council and Ontario Parks. This project is supported with funding from the Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation.

Northumberland Today - Ontario, CA.

Golf course ruling shows OMB bias, residents say

Water shortages concern homeowners
By: Simone Joseph
Developer — 1

Residents, environmental groups and Aurora council — 0

This is the score following a decision this week that left some residents, environmental groups and politicians shaking their heads.

The Ontario Municipal Board — an appointed provincial body that makes decisions on developments that often over-ride politicians — decided this week a more thorough environmental review of a planned Aurora golf course and condominium development is not necessary.

“I am very disappointed. I am still trying to absorb this,” Mayor Phyllis Morris said.

For homeowner Christine Sadler, the OMB’s decision has made her doubt if the development application will be stopped.

“I thought, naively, because we are on the Oak Ridges Moraine, they would not be allowed to have anything built, but, apparently, that is not the case,” said Ms Sadler, who lives on property north of the development.

“It seems obvious the development should not be built and, yet, the OMB seems pro-development. I don’t know if we will win this battle or not.”

Aurora politicians rejected Lebovic Homes’ plan to build an 18-hole golf course and 75-unit condominium complex on Leslie Street just north of Bloomington Road.

Aurora council also passed a resolution earlier this month to take “all necessary steps and actions” to support a more involved joint board hearing, rather than just moving forward with a straight OMB session.

It was thought a joint board, including the province’s environmental review panel, would give a more thorough review of the environmental aspects of the application.

It was decided, however, that since the developer’s application was already in the works when the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act was passed in 2001, only partial conditions of the act apply.

Councillors, residents and environmental groups have cited concerns about the development being built on the environmentally sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine. They have voiced concerns about how building a golf course would affect water supply, especially since residents have been put on water restrictions for the past several summers because of low water levels.

“We are going to feel an acute shortage of water in the coming years,” said Harmeet Singh, who lives south of the proposed development. “What is going to happen to it (wildlife)? What is going to happen to wetlands? Is nothing sacred?”

The last two sentences uttered by the OMB adjudicator after the joint board hearing left Sue Walmer, of Save the Oak Ridges Moraine, shaking her head.

The adjudicator said: “The rights of the property owner really have to be preserved. We have to take special care to preserve them as you would require if it was your property.”

This statement showed the OMB favours the rights of developers rather than residents or other groups, Ms Walmer said. This is a complaint oft mentioned by residents and other groups in the past.

“To me, that comment seemed one-sided and biased. It raised a few eyebrows with the public. That was the warning sign that it may be biased,” she said.

But to Lloyd Cherniak, the decision to reject a joint-board hearing was fair.

“We think it is in the public interest. They (the OMB) say it is saving the public’s time and money. That is the way it should be. There is no justification for the motion (for a joint board),” said Mr. Cherniak, executive vice-president of Lebovic Enterprises Limited.

He suggested people often forget the background to the development application.

Mr. Cherniak reminded residents Lebovic Homes had originally planned to build single-family homes on two-acre lots but Aurora’s planner at the time suggested the company build homes in clusters to use less land.

Aurora council amended the development plan in November 1996 to reflect this change.

More than 10 years later, the company is still trying to get the development application passed.

“It was an attempt to stall things,” Mr. Cherniak said of the joint board hearing.

“We could not see a lot of legal precedent for doing this.”

There is also little basis for the water supply concerns, according to Mr. Cherniak.

The development would have a supervised system, he said. One well would provide water for the golf course’s clubhouse and for the bungalow subdivision. The golf course would use recycled water from the well. Water would not be taken from the groundwater in the Oak Ridges Moraine but would be collected through rain, he said.

The OMB hearing is April 7 and is scheduled to run for three weeks.

Yorkregion.com - Aurora - Golf course ruling shows OMB bias, residents say.