Lake water

Torrential rain Thursday (May 13) stirred up the water and caused a deluge of run-off from the Penetangore River, spilling into Lake Huron at the Kincardine Harbour.

Friday morning (May 14), the murky water along the shoreline looked like a floating sand bar, while the bright blue water could be seen beyond the break wall.

See the pictures

At Your Service ...

Continuing on the theme of biodiversity (in celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity), this issue will explore some of the services that ecosystems provide us, and why it's important to protect these benefits.

To begin, an ecosystem is a community of animals and plants interacting with one another and with their physical environment. Ecosystems include physical and chemical components, such as soils, water, and nutrients that support the organisms living within them. These organisms may range from large animals and plants to microscopic bacteria. Ecosystems include the interactions among all organisms in a given habitat. People are part of ecosystems. Our health and well-being depends upon the services provided by our local ecosystems and everything that makes them up ­ organisms, soil, water, and nutrients.  Along Lake Huron, some of our coastal ecosystems include wetlands, bluffs, dune grasslands, alvars, and woodlands.… continue reading »

Here's a short but fascinating federal survey of manure use across Canada, with a chart showing which watersheds use how much manure (in tonnes per hectare).

Southern Ontario has six of the country's Top Ten manure-producing regions, including the top three, so we own the podium on that. The Penetangore, Saugeen and Maitland watersheds are all up there. The survey is from Stats Can, based on 2006 Census of Agriculture data, and published in December of 2008. Access is free, so it might be of interest to the whole Bruce Beach Cottagers' Association.

A geographical profile of livestock manure production in Canada, 2006

Tom Spears… continue reading »

Feds outline plan to nurse Great Lakes to health.

By JOHN FLESHER,
AP Environmental Writer John Flesher, Ap Environmental Writer
– Sun Feb 21, 8:25 am ET

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat and invasive species.

The plan envisions spending more than $2.2 billion for long-awaited repairs after a century of damage to the lakes, which hold 20 percent of the world's fresh water. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the document, which Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was releasing at a news conference Sunday in Washington.

… continue reading »