HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-12-24, Page 1Volume 24 No. 51 Thursday, Dec. 24, 2008 $1.25 GST included
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Wishes come early
Three-month-old Lauren Charron puts the sparkle in Santa’s eye during her very first visit with
him at the Auburn breakfast on Sunday morning. Children of all ages got to spend some time
with old St. Nick, in addition to enjoying the delicious meal served up by the local Lions Club.
(Vicky Bremner photo)
One of the snowiest falls in memory ended with a wintery blast, then
winter was officially ushered in Sunday with a crippling storm.
On Friday a storm that had been expected to track south of the area,
dropped an unexpectedly high amount of snow on the area.
But that was just a taste compared to what hit Sunday, the first official day
of winter, when 50 km winds and heavy lake-effect snow off Lake Huron
closed every highway from north of London to the Bruce Peninsula.
Travellers were stranded throughout the region. Huron County roads
department plows were called off the roads late Sunday as snow, whipped up
by 50 km winds, made visibility impossible for even seasoned plow drivers.
The first challenge for road crews, OPP officers and tow-truck operators
on Monday morning was to clear the roads of abandoned vehicles so that the
snowplows could do their job opening roads. Plows had to weave their way
through the vehicles to make a track for tow trucks to get to them.
In one case, a stranded family with young children called police after they
became stranded in huge snow drifts on Newry Road, east of Brussels
Sunday evening. A county snowplow and a tow truck were dispatched to
rescue the family in temperatures that, with the wind chill, reached -22
degrees celsius, according to the Weather Channel.
Weather brings area
a double hit of winter
An information meeting on the
emerald ash borer brought 150
woodlot owners and lumber industry
representatives together in Bayfield,
Dec. 16,
The meeting was held at Pine Lake
Camp, one of four locations near
Bayfield where the voracious insect
was discovered earlier this fall. Those
in attendance were given an
opportunity to view trees that had been
invaded by the Asian invader.
“Emerald ash borer (EAB) is here to
stay unfortunately,” the group was told
by Brian Hamilton, EAB program
officer with the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency (CFIA).
The area infected by the insect,
whose larvae tunnels under in the soft-
wood area under the skin of ash trees,
cutting off transfer of nutrients from
the roots to the leaves and vice-versa,
now spreads from Washington and
Virginia, across through Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois and into Michigan and
Minnesota.
“It’s too big to eradicate” Hamilton
said. “We’re in a slow-the-spread
strategy.”
The insect was first found in Essex
County in limited amounts, having
hopped the border from Michigan.
CFIA first tried to prevent the spread
by destroying ash trees in a wide swath
of Kent and Essex but the spread
continued. Since 2007 infestations
have been found in Norfolk, the
Toronto area, and the Ottawa area, as
well as Huron.
CFIA imposes a quarantine around
an infected area to try to prevent the
spread of the insect through transfers
of nursery stock, fire wood and logs.
It’s felt the likely source of the
Bayfield outbreak was from campers
bringing in firewood containing the
insect.
Hamilton said the size of the
quarantine area around Bayfield is not
yet determined, although in the past
the county has been used as the unit of
control. There’s a penalty of up to
$200,000 or imprisonment for
disobeying a quarantine order. More
likely, people such as campers and
homeowners are likely to get an on-
the-spot ticket for $400 if they’re
found transporting prohibited
materials.
CFIA has a team of eight EAB
inspectors who spend part of their time
blitzing campgrounds, checking to see
it anyone has infected firewood and
educating people about the importance
of not helping spread the insect.
CFIA has been surveying Huron
County since 2003, looking in high
risk areas like saw mills and
campgrounds.
If the progress of the insect can be
slowed there are biological controls on
the horizon. Some native wasp
varieties have been discovered that lay
eggs on the EAB and kill them. The
population of these wasps has been
found to increase in areas where the
EAB has infected trees.
The U.S. is also testing wasps from
China that are predators of the EAB
there. One of the wasps stings the adult
insect and carries it back to its tunnel
to eat it.
Tests have shown that EAB cannot
establish on any tree variety except
ash.
Other good news is that even though
the tree dies, the roots stay alive and
send up replacement shoots.
In Windsor, 95 per cent of ash trees
died, but five per cent have survived
even though they’re likely to have been
infected.
The scary thing about EAB,
Hamilton said, is that it can attack
young ash trees before they are old
enough to produce seed, so it has the
potential to wipe out the species,
unlike Dutch elm disease, which
attacks mature elms that are already
producing seeds that can replace them.
The audience heard some of the
difficulties of living in an area where
there has been an infestation. Eric
Cleland, now a forest health
A decision on how business will be
done at Belgrave’s Community
Centre was put on hold at North
Huron’s Dec. 15 council meeting.
Two recommendations had come
to council from the committee of the
whole meeting held a week prior.
The first stated that the Belgrave
Community Centre would be
invoiced for all North Huron staff
hours associated its operation,
Also, the committee recommended
that the Belgrave board review its
rental fees to cover the costs and that
there be discussions regarding the
duties of staff working at events.
A second motion stated that all
functions with alcohol should be
supervised by North Huron staff.
Whether or not staff would be
required at other functions would be
at the discretion of the North Huron
recreation department. The staff
members would have no conflict of
interest with the event being held.
Paul Gowing, councillor for
Morris-Turnberry and a
representative on the Belgrave
Community Centre board was
present at the North Huron council
meeting to discuss concerns the
board has with what he describes as
an “about face”.
Gowing said that the board had
been under the belief for the past
year that, to meet insurance
requirements, North Huron was
working towards licencing the
facility.
“There would be efficiences
gained by doing that,” he said in an
interview following the meeting, “so
we were heading in that direction.
From about March on we were
working on the assumption the
facility would be licenced.”
Dec. 10 he said they received
North Huron’s new direction,
indicating they were not going
pursue licensing at this time. It has,
he said, “kind of left us wondering.”
Gowing said the centre already
operates under North Huron’s
municipal alcohol policy. “These
new requirements are on top of that.”
Councillor Greg McClinchey
made a motion following Gowing’s
presentation that council not proceed
on the recommendations until there
was a chance for discussions
between the parties involved, and
asked that a meeting be convened as
the earliest opportunity.
“Let’s get the issues on the table,”
he said.
Gowing was pleased that there is
going to be an opportunity for
discussion. “Morris-Turnberry has
an agreement for any deficit the
centre runs. We feel we should be
able to discuss it.”
Gowing also feels there will be
more meetings. “Everyone has to get
on the same page and make this
work.”
NH holds off on arena decisions
By Bonnie Gropp
The Citizen
Emerald ash borer
meeting in Bayfield
Continued on page 7
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen