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The Citizen, 1992-03-04, Page 1News______J Education g Sports ■ Farm Blyth Council tightens purse strings See page 3 HCBE to review hiring policy See page 6 Barons draw first blood. Down Bulls 4-1 See page 12 Farm groups scale down GATT alert See page 14 The North Huron itizen Vol. 8 No. 9 Wednesday, March 4, 1992 60 cents Council hears students' waste plan A school project of two Brussels students could lead to more com­ posting of waste in the village. Michelle Freeman and Dawn TenPas appeared before Brussels Village Council Monday night to discuss their project, started as an independent study class at F.E. Madill Secondary School in Wing­ ham. Their project involved study­ ing composting for commercial establishments. They identified restaurants and grocery stores that could compost their vegetable wastes instead of adding to the waste disposal problem. Most, they felt, are small enough that they could use regular household com- posters but one or two might require larger composters. Under their plan, the students would get funding from the Shell Canada's environmental fund to undertake the project of providing composters to these establishments and circulating more information about composting. The students approached council to get its approval to proceed and to provide interim funding for the project since Shell provides half the money in advance and the other half when the project is completed. "You've got my approval," Coun­ cillor Greg Wilson said. Council approved a resolution of support to the students. Reeve Gordon Work­ man wished them the best of luck with their project. Meanwhile Donna White, village Clerk-treasurer told council that the home composter program is a huge success. An earlier 50 composters were quickly sold. Another 50 composters have just arrived and 40 of those were already spoken for. That means that nearly one in four homes in Brussels is using backyard composting instead of throwing kitchen waste into garbage for the landfill, she said. Farmers need food security, says George The underlying message of Feb. 2lst's huge rally of fanners on Par­ liament Hill is the need for food security, Roger George, president of the Ontario County Federation of Agriculture (OFA) told farmers at a kitchen-table session in Walton Monday. Mr. George, in Huron for the kick-off of a membership drive for OFA, met with a number of area farmers at the home of OFA direc­ tor Jeanne Kirkby. "The issue (of GATT trade reform proposals that would endanger orderly marketing of some Canadian farm products) boils down to the underlying mes­ sage of the demonstration- where do you want to get your food." Reintroduced Rob Gibson (left) and Ken Maronets of the Wingham office of the Ministry of Natural Resources reintroduce a male and female wild turkey before they are released on a Morris Township farm. For the first time in nearly a century wild turkeys will be roaming the bushland of Huron after the MNR caught birds in the Cambridge area and released them in Huron. Consumers can save a few cents by demolishing supply management but put thousands of people out of work. It doesn't matter if you save 10 cents a pound on chicken if you're out of work, he said. The Canadian public has to real­ ize that at some time down the road they'll lose control of the produc­ tion of food if they don't support Canadian fanners. When food is no longer produced in Canada but in a foreign country then there will be no control on how much food there is or the quality. "More than one country over the years has paid the price for not being able to feed its own people," he said. Canadians have only to look at the situation in the Soviet Union right now where a nation that has the potential to feed the world, can't even feed its own Canada Post reduces postal hike The large jump in postal rates for out-of-town subscribers to commu­ nity newspapers has apparently been cut in half for a one year peri­ od. A news release from the office of Perrin Beatty, minister of Commu­ nications in the federal government said Thursday that the increase in postage that was to have been put into effect this week has been reduced by 50 per cent. It was this Wild turkeys let loose in Huron For the first time in nearly a cen­ tury wild turkeys are again roaming the woodlands of Huron county. Ten turkeys, the second release this winter, were set loose on a Morris township com field south of Wingham Feb. 25 as part of a plan by the Ministry of Natural Resources to reintroduce the largest people, to realize what could hap­ pen if we get to the situation where Continued on page 6 increase that had driven up the costs of subscriptions to those beyond the 40-mile radius or in centres with door-to-door postal delivery to $39 plus GST. Citizen publisher Keith Roulston said that at this point the details of the new plan are not available. "Once the true situation is known we'll make the appropriate adjust­ ments to the due dates of those sub­ scribers who have already paid the higher rate," he said. North American game bird back into the county. Wild turkeys, which weigh up to 25 pounds, once populated al least 15 counties in southern Ontario in the 1800s but with overhunting and the continued clearing of the mature hardwood forest they inhab­ ited, the numbers dwindled by late last century. The last recorded sighting of a native wild turkey in Ontario was in 1909. Similar declines were recorded in the northeastern U.S. Since the 1950's several attempts had been made to reintroduce turkeys into Ontario but all using pen-raised birds were a failure. Starting in 1984, wild birds trapped in Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Vermont and New Jersey were imported into two areas in southwestern and eastern Ontario. The birds quickly multiplied and were in tum trapped and released in other parts of the province. Huron county's newest residents had been trapped only that morning in the Cambridge area by a team made up of Kevin Coultes of Blyth, along with Rob Gibson and Ken Maronets, all employees of the Wingham office of the MNR. They had lured the birds to a pile of feed then used a rocket-powered net to capture them. The birds were then put in boxes and driven back to Wingham where they were in the wild again within hours. In late December another flock had been released in the county. The MNR would like to release a third flock but Mr. Gibson said that with very little snow cover in the Cambridge area, the turkeys can find food for themselves easily and may not be tempted to a bait pile. The flocks have five females for each male and will be let loose along the three main watersheds in he MNR’s Wingham district: the Maitland, Bayfield and Nine Mile Rivers. They can spread over a wide area, travelling up to 10 miles from where they are released. MNR biologists feel the birds will do well in Huron, at least in the northern areas of the county where there are the kinds of hardwood areas they like. The birds will eat just about anything they can swallow from insects to grass shots to snails to fruit and nuts. Although they will scavenge for grains left over from harvest, there have been few reports of crop damage. Each hen usually hatches a brood of 10 so the population grows rapidly. Great homed owls are the main enemy of the little chicks. Turkeys are extremely cautious, can run fast and roost in trees at night, so they are seldom in danger from foxes or coyotes. If the population grows as expected, other trapping and release programs will be used to spread the birds throughout the area. Eventually a limited hunting season may be introduced. Since the birds are very wary, the hunter must lure males to him by using a call to imitate a female turkey. Hunting is only in the spring, dur­ ing breeding season and only for males. Success rates for hunters in turkey hunts are only 10-12 per cent compared to 30 per cent for a deer hunt.