Beaver Creek Housing Cooperative

There are a handful of people at Beaver Creek that are really excited about LOFT: local organic fair trade. It is a local co-op that consists of farmers right in our own backyard. We are hoping to get enough interest in the local area to allow us to have a LOFT drop here at Beaver Creek. Just think, your order of fresh, organic, fair trade fruits and veggies delivered to Beaver Creek every week ready for you to pick up and enjoy. You can learn more at LOFTmarket.ca

Order options include:

• The Family Box ($37): Similar to last season’s box, this box will contain a variety of vegetables and fruits for a small family or two hungry adults.
• The Loft Bag ($25): This easy to handle bag will offer slightly smaller portions than the Family Box while still offering you an assortment of weekly fresh greens.
• The Heavy Box ($50): This box is heavy!! A new addition this season for those who love to cook with vegetables. If veggies are your staple then this box is for you.

If we have at least ten orders, LOFT will make Beaver Creek a drop depot. Please email me at Jonathan.Dietrichbeavercreek.coop if you are interested in placing an order for pickup at Beaver Creek.

Today I have added a detailed map of Beaver Creek to the website. It uses Google Maps, and details many items of interest including:

• Unit numbers for each block
• Community Centre
• Visitor Parking
• Gazebo / Picnic Area
• Playground / Sports Pad
• Gardens / Fire Pit

You can find the new map at http://beavercreek.coop/map

The tenth Sunoco Earth Day will be held on April 19, 2008 at the GRCA conservation area on Westmount Road just off Northfield Drive in Waterloo. The event, sponsored by Sunoco and the Suncor Energy Foundation, runs from 10am to 1pm and is free. Beaver Creek's Green Committee is organizing members who are interested in attending and participating as a group.

Trees and shovels will be provided to those who want to help plant 1,000 native trees such as white pine, sugar maple and red oak. They will replace some of the two hectares worth of red pines which had to be removed last fall because of an infestation of pine shoot beetles.

On April 23 city council reconsidered the sports field environmental assessment (EA) and voted six to one, to approve the EA. Obviously councilors had been lobbied extensively by the university. A few councilors justified their vote by trying to separate their approval of the EA from the final approval of the sports field deal which will come later.

Councilors did not hear the arguments that the EA process and its conclusions were flawed.

Redbud is a small tree which is inundated with mauve blossoms in late April to early May before leaves develop. It competes with forsythia in providing a spectacular spring show.

Although redbud is part of the Carolinian forest, south-western Ontario is the absolute northern limit of its range. Contrary to its Latin name, most American publications list it as native only to eastern United States from northern Florida to Vermont and west to the prairies. However a late eighteenth century letter describes a redbud tree at the tip of Point Pelee which at the time was being eroded by waves and subsequently lost to further inquiry. But it is this reference which Ontario botanists cite to prove that redbud is a native to southern Ontario. Redbuds which grow wild in southern Ontario are assumed to come from Michigan seed stock.

In a marathon meeting on the evening of February 19, city council voted 5 to 2 in favour of delaying receiving the environmental assessment which recommends sports fields on the environmental reserve.