YREA summer 2023 news & views

Don't forget the birds, bees & insects

Wildlife friendly gardens are important, especially in urban settings. Gardeners can mitigate the effects of built forms around them by creating nesting sites, sources of food via plantings & avoiding all pesticides so that beneficial insects can do the job instead. Provide our feathered friends with a water source. Birds first go to a perch nearby to check out their surroundings, so set a birdbath in your habitat garden - beside a tree or tall shrub. Change the water every 5 days & give the container a scrubbing. This will keep the water fresh & suppress mosquito breeding. 

Growing up & eating organic in schools

Canadian Organic Growers offers a school gardening program to establish living classrooms, which includes workshops with excellent resources  ensuring success for educators & our next generation of veggie growers & healthy eaters. Discuss the potential of a garden at your children's schools with their teachers & other parents.


We also need to put organic food on the menu at schools. The ecological impacts of cheap, harmful, ultra-processed food are too big a price to pay. For the well being of children & the environment  EU ministers back serving up more organic meals in schools & hospitals. In CanadaGUHAH is also advocating for organic food served in schools.

We can all do our part to help the earth

* Read YREA’s annual report for a snapshot of the issues we tackled. 2022 was another daunting year.

* View YREA's submission to Pickering Council in support of a motion to oppose a Pickering airport, which passed largely thanks to the decades of advocacy by Land over Landings & a more enlightened council.

* Another Development proposal on the Moraine, across from a wetland, north of Lake St. George in Richmond Hill.

* YREA submitted comments on Bill S-5, the Federal update to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) which will include our right to a healthy environment. Unfortunately, our environment is far from healthy as pesticide companies still hold so much sway in the promotion of the pesticides & GE seeds they produce.

FAKE GRASS IS A HUMAN HEALTH HAZARD

Although artificial turf continues to be installed at schools, there are new concerns regarding exposure to hazardous compounds leaching from these plastic playing fields. They include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and PFAS - known as forever chemicals & identified as carcinogens, neurotoxicants, mutagens & endocrine disruptors. Since six US baseball players who competed on AstroTurf all died of a rare form of brain cancer, many municipalities have instituted bans. The heat island surge, as high as 93c (that's 40c hotter than asphalt) increases risks of heat exposure & injuries. What about daycare centres that use it? What are the added health risks to such early childhood exposure? The industry will argue that artificial turf is safe, but to protect public health & safety, politicians, NGOs, educators & parents must advocate for a complete ban on the use of artificial turf & its removal from areas where it has been installed.

Camping & other things to do this summer

Thinking of a camping vacation this year? Check out the many beautiful provincial park campgrounds right across Canada. If you don’t want to travel very far, a favourite is Awenda on Georgian Bay with beautiful hiking trails & beaches. How about Day trips including the Wye Marsh & Sainte Marie Among the Hurons in the Midland area? Georgian Bay might bring to mind the paintings of the Group of Seven artists. If you haven't seen their work yet, why not also plan a visit to the McMichael gallery in Kleinburg this summer?

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