On May 10 a small group of local residents concerned about the issue of climate change gathered outside the United Church in Sharbot Lake to make their concerns known. Their efforts coincided with those of 10,000 other Canadians who staged a number of similar protests across the country to oppose current federal government objectives and plans, most notably the building of oil pipelines, with the hopes that the government will instead chose cleaner energy alternatives.

The protest titled Defend Our Climate was organized by Leadnow.ca, an organization dedicated to campaigning about a number of issues with the aim to “defend our democracy and hold governments accountable to the values of a majority of Canadians.” The non-partisan organization has over 300,000 members across the country. By holding gatherings and through on-line surveys the organization has set its sights on strengthening Canada’s democracy by “doing our part to stop runaway climate change, and building a fair economy that reverses the trend of growing inequality.”

The Sharbot Lake event was organized by Phil Somers of Sydenham, who is also seeking the Federal Liberal nomination for the 2015 election. Somers is a member of Leadnow. He found out about the event on line and was approached to hold an event in Sharbot Lake. Somers said he has always been concerned about climate change and global warming and that he is a huge supporter of green energy alternatives. “Even though I don't think that we can totally get rid of pipelines since the alternative of transporting oil by train or truck is a much more dangerous alternative, I still would like to see oil industry revenues be used for green energy projects. Ultimately I'd like to see us get rid of fossil fuel dependency and begin using electric cars and buses and other alternate energy sources.”

Somers cited other projects that he would like to see - more solar panels on homes and buildings and more wind energy projects. Somers said that clean energy is the way to go but the amount of electricity currently being produced by green energy in Ontario is extremely low and he would like to see that change.

Sharbot Lake resident, Ken Fisher, said he felt over the last 40 years that things were getting better but has recently woken up to the fact that “disaster is fast approaching”. He explained, “It's important that we show up here today and show the younger people that they should be as concerned as we are. If we were not standing here then we would be on the sidelines watching everything slide into disaster and oblivion”.

Asked to specify what he means Fisher responded, “California is pretty much drying up. They have no water this year and are now going to shut down and burn orchards because there is no water there”. Bringing the issue closer to home Fisher said, “ We have a government here that is ramming through pipelines east and west and overriding the rights of Aboriginal communities and others for the sake of being in the pocket of the oil companies. Fossil fuels need to stay in the ground and shifting to renewable energy is our only way out.”

Sharbot Lake resident, Carol Pepper, who has worked with the local farmers' group Hands on Harvest, said she felt that the big issues for her are the trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Europe, which she said are “sabotaging our well being as Canadians as well as our economy and resources. A political change needs to happen and people have to start caring and getting involved.” Pepper cited her concerns over Bill C-18, which she said threatens the rights of plant breeders who want control over their seeds and what they are allowed to grow. “There are a lot of risks that go along with only being allowed to plant certain seeds and crops, not to mention the problems and health concerns that come along with genetically modified crops, like pesticides, herbicides, and food shortages."

Though the Sharbot Lake event was smaller than others in larger centers, those who attended were no doubt pleased to be able to voice their objections about the Harper government's stand on climate change along with their own personal concerns on a number of current issues. For more information about the campaigns that Leadnow is running visit leadnow.ca.

(Editosrs note - a previous version of this article erroneously said that Phil Somers is the Federal Liberal cndidate for the newly created Lanark-Frontenac riding) 

On April 12 in a talk titled “Trees Worth Knowing in Eastern Ontario”, naturalist Owen Clarkin shared his love and knowledge of trees with guests as part of a nature talk sponsored by Southern Frontenac Community Services and the Grace Centre Arts Committee at the Grace Centre in Sydenham. Clarkin has been working for a number of years alongside painter Aleta Karstad and her husband biologist Fred Schueler in their ongoing research project titled “Fragile Inheritance”. The project’s goal is to “promote and support the long term study of species in their habitats and the human and environmental effects on them”.

Clarkin, who grew up in Russell, Ontario, said that it was the huge elms in those parts that first fascinated him, along with the well-known book “Native Trees of Canada” by R.C. Hosie. Clarkin, who was educated as a chemist, has for years been studying and photographing trees and he began looking for answers to a number of questions he felt were not being considered in the science of forestry. “I had questions that weren’t being considered, likely because of a lack of funding, so I decided independently to begin studying the ecology of the forests of Eastern Ontario.”

In his presentation Clarkin highlighted the not so well known relatives of common trees in the area, like the sugar maple’s cousin, the black maple, which produces a tastier sap than its relative. He spoke about the heartleaf birch, which has a more ragged and copper-colored covering than the paper birch. He demonstrated the difference between the shag and shell bark hickories, and also spoke of the Kentucky coffee tree, which has huge twigs and seeds and “stands up well in ice storms because of its smaller overall surface area”. He spoke about the Blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata), the only ash tree native to North America that is resilient to the emerald ash borer.

There are two cousins of the American elm: the rock elm, which can be identified by its corky twigs and pointy, yellowish buds, and the slippery elm, which has wavier branches and red, hairy buds on thicker, stouter twigs. He spoke about the Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), which can be found in the Carolinian Zone forests that come as far north as the southern side of Lake Ontario. He spoke of the red spruce (Picea rubens), which has been found growing in Algonguin Park and can tolerate very dry and hot conditions.

Clarkin advised that if you want to get to know a tree, start first by being able to identify its twigs and buds. He stressed that research into forest and tree ecology is important since trees are “facing a huge number of threats right now as a result of climate change, which is bringing with it hotter and dryer conditions, and globalization, which is bringing invasive insects and fungi. “We're noticing now that trees are not growing as big and living as long as they used to just a few decades ago. So this research is very practical but it is proving very difficult to get funding for it.”

To address that concern, Clarkin is now working on a book about trees and has collected a lot of material which he hopes to sort through and publish at a later date. In an effort to spread his love of trees and specifically elms, Clarkin commissioned Aleta Karstad to paint one of his favorite trees, a 92-foot-tall, one-metre-wide rock elm in Merrickville that he estimates could be anywhere from 200 to 250 years old. Karstad's painting titled “Merrickville Rock Elm” can be seen on Aleta's blog at aletakarstad.com and it is one of three paintings that Clarkin will commission her to paint.

Clarkin offered advice on practical steps that homeowners can take to assist the health of their trees. “First, I would make a point of identifying what is growing in your woodlots, along your fence lines or in your yards since that will give you clues about what the land is like and will tell you which other species (likely the known companions of the species already there) are missing and that you might want to consider reintroducing.”

Clarkin has been collecting seeds from the majestic Merrickville rock elm and is offering them to anyone hoping to grow one of their own. Email him atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Conservation authorities throughout the region were posting and updating flood advisories early this week as the higher than average winter runoff combined with the latest in a series of spring rains caused floods along the Mississippi, Rideau, Quinte and Cataraqui Conservation area watersheds. Among the hardest hit areas in the Frontenac News' region were places in the vicinity of Arden in the Salmon River watershed and Verona in the Salmon and Napanee River watersheds, both of which are watched over by Quinte Conservation.

Bryon Keene, the water resources manager for Quinte Conservation, said on Tuesday that, “Overnight rainfall Monday and the present downpour are contributing to rising levels in the headwater areas and this water still has to pass downstream.”

Among the water flow monitors that Quinte has in place is one at Depot Creek at Bellrock Road. The flow rate at that location was high last week, and then dropped over the weekend but has since jumped up with the Monday night rains. On Tuesday morning the flow rate was 18.9 metres per second, 3.5 times the average flow for that location, and by 7 pm the rate had risen to 19.7 metres.

Keene said he expects that rate to continue to rise, and even after it peaks it will not likely start to decline for a number of days. Low-lying areas in Verona have been affected, including some businesses along Verona Main Street.

“We only have one way of controlling the water flowing through the Napanee River watershed, and that is by storing water in the Depot lakes. At this point the lakes are full so we don't really have anything we can do.”

The Salmon River has overflowed its banks as it rushes south through a culvert on Highway 7 at the Arden exit, flooding a park along the highway as well as a small section of the Arden road.

The situation is more dire for a number of residents living on the Elm Tree Road, which is downstream from Big Clear Lake before it feeds into the Salmon River.

Several back and front yards are under several feet of water, and one home is surrounded by water.

A few houses over, Rob Woodcock's woodpile and picnic table are under water and he is concerned that a holding tank he put in last year will be ruined by the flood waters. “The water level was high over the weekend but last night it went up another two feet,” he said.

Mississippi Valley Conservation has issued a flood warning for Dalhousie Lake and further downstream towards Carleton Place, and also along the Fall River. The already high waters of Sharbot and Bennett Lakes are expected to rise by 5-10 centimetres in the coming days.

Cataraqui Region Conservation is maintaining a flood warning for a number of lakes, including Sydenham, Loughborough and Buck. A number of creeks that were going down last week and are not considered in the flood warning area, have risen as the result of rains this week but are expected to start dropping back by the end of the work week. These include Wilton Creek, Millhaven Creek, Collins Creek, Little Cataraqui Creek, Lyn Creek, and Buells Creek.

Bobs Lake is a key reservoir lake for the Rideau watershed, and Rideau Valley Conservation reports that it has risen by over a metre since mid-March. As of early this week it had gone above its upper limit at 163 metres; therefore water will be released at the Bolingbroke dam, relieving flood concerns at Bobs Lake but creating more concern downstream towards the City of Ottawa.

Conservation authority officials point out that they are responsible for monitoring water levels and exercising control where they can; however, it is the local townships that are responsible for dealing with flooding if it affects residents. In most cases, the main concern of the local townships has been the effect of high water levels on local roads, and crews have been busy repairing culverts and some washed out roads.

In Central Frontenac a family living in a rented dwelling at the far end of Burke Settlement Road has been forced to leave because their road has been washed out twice, and is not being repaired by a contractor. Alan Kehoe reports that he was forced to leave on Tuesday, April 8, when his washed out road was so filled with water that fire crews had to come in and take his girlfriend and their newborn child out in a boat. They are now staying with family, as is his father, a dialysis patient who lives on the same property.

Alan Kehoe is not pleased with how the road issues were dealt with by the township. “At one point [public works manager] Mike Richardson told me I should park my car on the other side of the road and carry my child across. But the water was high and there was a current and it wasn't safe. Later when he was here I heard him say to one of his workers that he did not realise the water was so high.”

For his part Mike Richardson acknowledged he suggested Kehoe carry his child across. “But at that point the water was only 2 or 3 inches deep. It became a more serious situation a few days later when the water kept coming even after we had replaced culverts and even cut a hole in the road to let water run off. That's when we needed the fire crew to get them out.”

The Kehoes did return home on Saturday night (April 12), but were forced to leave again on Monday morning (April 14) after more rain came.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mike Richardson said it will be another two days, at least, before the Crains' Construction crews will have the road repair complete.

Meanwhile road crews in all local townships are busy trying to keep all the roads open and drivers are being warned to exercise caution on the roads.

Two machines have been slowly, steadily, inexorably dismantling the former Sharbot Lake High School over the past few weeks. The school, which was built in three stages over decades, is being taken apart one attached building at a time.

Its replacement, Granite Ridge comprehensive school, built in a style that could be called 'modern institutional', is just a few feet away.

Although the process was announced in advance, it has still been disheartening to see the building where so many children grew into young adults being torn open and turned into piles of rubble.

Even though the school principal told the school community that removing trees was a regrettable part of a process that will be setting the stage for a new parking lot and playground for Granite Ridge Education Centre, it did come as a shock when the large oak that graced the front lawn in front of the main doors of the school was chopped down last week. It is laid out on the ground in pieces, as if it were nothing more than the rubble gathered in piles beside it.

A number of maples behind the school have come down as well, but this tree was a major feature of Sharbot Lake High School, and judging from its size, it was likely far older than the school that was built around it.

There is, I hope, a good reason why this particular tree had to go, because any replacement tree will not attain anything like the majesty of that oak in the lifetime of even the youngest JK student at GREC.

When the landscaping is being done around the school, we will see whether the Limestone board is bringing some vision to the process that justifies removing this particular tree. Hopefully it has not just been jettisoned in the same way that the contents of the school were tossed into dumpsters when the school was being emptied before being demolished.

Whether the reason is a good one or just a matter of lazy expediency, it is sad to see that tree laying in pieces on the ground.

Lloyd Helferty is an engineering technologist and the president and co-founder of Biochar Ontario. On March 22 he gave a talk titled “The Landscape of Biochar in Canada: Exciting Opportunities in Biocarbon” to a group of Green Party supporters at their annual fundraising dinner, which was held at the community hall in Maberly.

Helferty spoke at length about the practical applications of Biochar, which he defined as a “fine grained charcoal, high in organic carbon and largely resistant to decomposition.”

Helferty said that Biochar is not the same product as the charcoal that people burn in barbeques nor is it the chunks of charcoal one finds in the ash of their wood stoves. Rather, it is produced by a process called pyrolysis, which he defined as the “thermal degradation of biomass in the absence of oxygen.”

The result of pyrolysis is that the carbon in the plant matter becomes “fixed” in carbon structures that do not easily degrade. According to Helferty, Biochar's most beneficial applications are as a soil amendment due to its enhanced nutrient retention properties and its ability to reduce fertilization requirements while also protecting soil from the negative effects of climate and environmental impact. In the information that accompanied his presentation, Helferty said that “Char-amended soils have shown 50-80% reductions in nitrous oxide emissions and have reduced the runoff of phosphorous into surface waters as well as reduced the leaching of nitrogen into ground water”.

Helferty stated that Biochar can offer “potential synergies between enhanced soil fertility and food security, the production of green energy and the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide”.

He said that the long-term applications of Biochar can be used to “transition to long-term sustainable soil management practices while simultaneously enhancing the biological fertility of soil since Biochar increases porosity in most soils and can also increase the absorption rates of water in soil, thereby reducing the effects of water runoff”.

He said that Biochar also acts as a filter, thereby helping to protect and purify water sources.

Helferty's aim through Biochar Ontario is to source out and apply the various environmental and industrial uses for Biochar, many of which he highlighted in his presentation.

These included uses in agriculture as a soil conditioner and fertilizer substrate, uses in water filtration systems, functional clothing, insulation, civil engineering, energy storage systems, feed supplements in animal husbandry, as well as applications in the agro-forest industry.

Regarding its long list of possible applications Helferty said, “I consider carbon to be one of the most versatile atoms in the world and it has this capacity to be used in so many beneficial ways. It's kind of like a Lego building block in that it can be used to build so many different things at a micro-scale.”

Asked what he sees as the most ideal development and use of the product in Canada Helferty said that ultimately he sees the Biochar being used in the Canada's mining sector.

“Canada has a very strong mining industry and if we could develop a mining project, perhaps in a foreign country where mining practices can often have serious negative impacts on the land, utilizing Biochar would be a greatly beneficial, particularly in the case of open pit mining.”

Helferty went on to say that on a international level, Biochar could be used to reclaim much of the desert lands that are spreading rapidly in many countries around the world.

Although Canada is set up potentially to benefit from the many applications of Biochar, it has yet to kick start the industry, although a number of studies and research programs carried out in the 1980s showed promise. That and the fact that most of the land in Canada is fertile means that the product has yet to be explored in depth.

However, Helferty said that companies and organizations all over the world are making headway in their own studies regarding the potentials of Biochar and that he hopes to see Canadian companies and industries in the near future increase their explorations into this product.

No many people know that one of the  pre-eminent biological field stations in Canada is located in our own back yard. The Elbow Lake Environmental Education Centre (ELEEC), located in South Frontenac on the shores of Elbow Lake, was established in June 2011 in an agreement between the Queens University Biological Station (QUBS) and the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC).

The center sits on a 400 hectare parcel of land in the richly diverse Frontenac Arch. It was purchased by the NCC in 2006 from computer giant Hewlett Packard (HP), who ran the property as a recreational retreat for its employees. However, because the NCC purchases properties solely for the purpose of preserving natural bio-diversity and is not in the business of managing buildings, Queens University entered into the agreement.

Queens envisioned the buildings on the property as serving as a major center for environmental and educational outreach and signed the agreement to co-manage the centre with the NCC in 2011. In June 2013 Queens University bought a share of the property and now currently co-owns and manages the 18 hectares on which the center sits.

Nestled on the shore of Elbow Lake, the rustic and picturesque center is a nature lover’s paradise. It includes a main pavilion with kitchen/dining and meeting rooms, a day lodge equipped with a kitchen, meeting rooms and washrooms, plus 10 heated sleeping cabins. There is also a beach/waterfront area equipped with canoes, and numerous hiking trails wind throughout the property. The center offers a wide range of activities including school field trips, field courses, club meetings, as well as individual and group retreats, and conferences. Staff at the center welcome visits from educators, academics and conservation partners.

Carolyn Bonta manages the ELEEC and heads up the educational programming. She spoke of what makes this facility special. “The way we distinguish ourselves from similar facilities and groups is by the fact that we are part of Queens University and therefore are able to offer educational programming with a unique academic research slant. So groups who visit the center will not only learn about biodiversity and all the different animals and plants found here, but they will also learn how to sample biodiversity and how to scientifically count and measure what they find.”

A recent Bio-Blitz at the center identified over 600 species of plants and animals. Many of the ELEEC programs aim to promote citizen science and the center offers different research-oriented programs with a scientific edge that show visitors how to count birds, aquatic life and other species found on the property. There are also numerous research projects taking place that include lake water chemistry, plus a wide variety of monitoring studies of birds, frogs, climate, weather and the forest community. The center's programming targets local high school students in grades 9-12 and the programs aim to match the requirements of the current high school curriculum. ELEEC also accepts students from outside the area.

In the summer months the center offers an Eco-Adventure camp to children ages 10-14. ELEEC programming also includes activities for adult groups and organizations and overnight programs are also available.

Bonta said her goal is to keep fees at the center as low as possible. On the day that I visited, a group of 20 graduate students from Queens University's geography department were busy preparing breakfast in the main pavilion. Sinead Earley, a 4th year PHD student in the geography department at Queens, was leading a special social event for the group, who were also gearing up for a snow shoeing expedition. Earley said that every fall new graduate students in the geography department at Queens spend time at the center in an annual welcoming event. She said the ELEEC is able to “add a balance to the lives of students who often get cooped up in offices doing work” and that it is a great benefit to Queens geography students, who will often visit it numerous times during the school year.

The ELEEC will be holding an Open House on Sunday May 25 from 10am-3pm and the general public is invited. Staff and volunteers will be offering guided hikes and paddles and numerous games and other activities. Representatives from the NCC will also be present at the event and there are plans that the center’s new logo will be unveiled at that time. For more information visit elbowlakecentre.ca