Present: Rebecca Aird, Barbara Jane Heath, Kathryn
Nelson, Jane Stoyles, Jennifer Lee, Natalia Vrystyuk, John Dance, Liz
Bernstein, Graham Saul, Julia Sneyd, Mary Trudeau, Keith Shackleton.
Regrets: Sean Whittaker, Rebecca Goostrey, Sarah Rowe, Akua Schatz, Rebecca Cooney.
1. Motion to OECA: Green community. OECA is favourable but resolution is referred
to their AGM.
2. Graham:
Ecology Ottawa – vision is to make Ottawa the “Green Capital
of Canada”. Ottawa is in many ways falling behind other
cities in environmental performance.
Cities are crucial in the effort to find sustainable alternatives. Surveys show 2/3 of Canadians are deeply
concerned about the environment. If we could mobilize those people in Ottawa, we could make
great progress, hold council accountable on environmental issues. King
Edward Ave. is a major example of city's failure
to act.
Rebecca: SLOE’s primary focus is on practical projects
rather than political advocacy. Glad to have umbrella orgs like EO, JustFoods,
COG, etc. to help address broader picture. Also SLOE’s mandate includes working
with other groups on policy issues that affect our projects, and on issues of
mutual concern -- e.g. opposition to Alta
Vista Parkway, Queensway widening.
Discussed neighbourhood environmental
groups—ECOS, Glebe, Kanata, Orleans; also specific groups like Just Food,
Sierra Club. We need to build alliances
with these groups to achieve mutual goals. Would EO consider hosting a
networking forum for community enviro groups/reps?
3. Rideau River
Nature Trail: Rebecca & John walked
through with Robin Bennet, city cycling coordinator. Also with Jennifer Sheppard of city forestry
dept. She will produce a vegetation
magagement plan for us based on our input.
We can get households to request a tree from the city, then donate the
tree for planting in a SLOE project. We
can also request trees for parks and public spaces (e.g. boulevards). The person making the request for boulevards
etc. should be the adjacent landowner.
We will consult with U. St. Paul to make a request w/re the area facing Main near Clegg.
The forestry department will also help coordinate & advise cleanups,
brushing out etc. where needed.
Oct.
20, 10 AM, community walkthrough to get input from interested residents on the
overall idea and on identified possible short-term priorities. Encourage friends and neighbours to attend,
help with postering. Primary concern for
RRNT is the ecological integrity of the shoreline. Partly an education process, as well as the
actual physical dimensions -- pathway, planting trees, shrubs etc. We are
reminded that the city plans have for some time included a multi-use pathway
along this side of the river. Our goal
is to ensure that it is ecologically friendly (not a paved path etc.).
Natalia,
Jennifer & colleague Lindsay are student nurses assigned for community
placement to Sandy Hill Community Health Centre. They will be working on healthy living issues
with a specific focus on the role of the shoreline path for residents of Lees
Apartments.
Garden: 16 plots now in use. The land we have now is temporary, but will
still be available next year. 8 more
plots are staked out for development in the current location. We had hoped to expand to Oblate land but that
is slated for development soon. We
expect to finally receive the Green Partnership funding this week. It can be spent up until next year.
Children's
garden: Had a good initial meeting. Looking at Leggett Park
as a location. New participants are welcome.
Farmer's
Market: U. St.
Paul has officially agreed to host the Main Farmer's Market for
a full season next year. We plan to hire
a person (SPU student?) to coordinate it.
SLOE
is registered U.
of O experiential
learning program, and has networked with prof who runs conservation biology
course. We may benefit from research
done by students, e.g. storm water surveys which could be used in community
development design.
Charitable
status: Jane & Rebecca are
researching feasibility of securing charitable status for SLOE (subject to
agreement of OECA).
Next
meeting: Nov. 19, 7 PM,
166B Drummond
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