Beaver Creek Housing Cooperative

I am proud to announce that Beaver Creek is now a depot for Loft Market! Every Thursday between 3:45pm and 7:00pm you can arrange to have a bundle of fresh local produce delivered to Beaver Creek for pickup.

There are 2 different sizes and they have also added and option of a local/nonlocal box that includes some non local organic fruits.

This year they have included community bags at the depots if there is something in your bag you do not like. You can swap it out for something more to your liking. As always they include recipes that week for something new in your bag that maybe you aren’t sure what to do with.

I have been getting Loft Boxes since last year and have been really enjoying them and now will be able to walk down to our Community Centre to pick it up!

For more info check it out at http://loftmarket.ca/

This is your invitation to come out and help plant baby trees and bushes. After submitting a proposal to the president of the University of Waterloo, we have been granted permission to:

Naturalize the Creek at Bearinger and Pinebush with indigenous species of trees and shrubbery.

If you and your family would like to take part in this exciting event, grab a shovel and meet us.

• Where: the corner of Bearinger and Pinebush
• When: next Saturday, April 17 at 9:30 a.m.
• Why: Our new trees and shrubs will provide food and shelter to wildlife that lives by the Creek.

We are inviting all members of Beaver Creek, as well as our Lakeshore neighbours, to come out and participate in this exciting endeavour.

Hope to see you there!!

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.