YREA spring 2025 news & views

What is Watershed Security?

Watershed security exists when a watershed is able to maintain its natural function, providing ecological goods and services that sustain us all. Increasing population and development, escalating climate & biodiversity crises as well as infrastructure in the wrong place have led to watershed security deterioration. Ontario municipalities need to reverse this situation by revitalizing approaches to watershed management; improving the integration of land use and watershed planning so that recharge & discharge that provide critical base flows to watersheds are maintained. Ontario Headwaters Institute provides suggestions for a Municipal Charter for watershed security. Andrew McCammon is available for further discussions.

Thermal blinds are worth considering

The Canadian Greener Homes still has some cost saving initiatives on home energy retrofits. But have you ever considered thermal blinds? How about being able to turn the heat off every winter night? Or putting the blinds down on hot summer days & only needing the AC on 6 times during the season instead everyday. A townhouse with thermal blinds in Richmond Hill shows the energy comparison for heating to others in the community. Explore the possibilities.

Report shows huge rise in toxic pesticide use

Canada rates 38^th in population but 5^th in pesticide use, using 130 million kgs annually. We fall behind nearly 90% of countries in the world when it comes to banning harmful pesticides. Canada’s market-based approach to pesticide policy allows multinational agrichemical companies to wield control over the agricultural sector. These companies reap billions in profits at the expense of farmers, workers, our health and environment. It is no wonder we have a health crisis. Pesticides are also toxic to pollinators, beneficial insects, birds, mammals, amphibians & fish. Seven different pesticides were found in hundreds of dead and dying monarchs at an overwintering site. Frightening to imagine the amount of pesticides in the rest of us. Learn more from this ecojustice report & the work in progress. On the local front there is some good news. A federal grant in support of transitioning farmers to more sustainable practices in the Holland Marsh has addressed YREA’s concerns highlighting problems & solutions towards a cleaner Lake Simcoe. By supporting organic agriculture, the sector will continue growing. Learn the benefits of switching to organic food. You are worth it.

YREA 2024 annual report - We need our representives at all levels of government to listen to the people who elect them. Otherwise democracy could be replaced by dictatorship with some 'strong mayors' such as in Caledon, selling out greenbelt farmland for sprawl housing as Ford tried to do. Aurora's mayor vetoed York Region from considering a property for a facility to shelter vulnerable men. Where has our humanity gone? Strong mayors' actions to date. What is the point of having a council, whose role in government is to work by consensus for the betterment of the communities they serve if a strong mayor can overrule team building accord?

Robin Wall Kimmerer asks us to consider reciprocity, interconnectedness, gifting and gratitude instead of an economy rooted in manufacturered scarcity for private profit and the hoarding of resources so that we do not surrender our values to a system that actively harms what we love. A way forward could be through ecological economics.

The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that ‘hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual’. Highly recommended reading.

Reciprocate to nature by gifting something from our list