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Orono Town Hall BOWMANVILLE LIBRARY 163 Church Street 1.1.06 Bowmanville, Ont. L1C 1P7 GST Included Wednesday August 10,2005 Serving Kendal, Kirby, Leskard. Newcastle, Newtonville, Orono, Starkville and Tyrone since 1937^ if 1 1 ■ ill II , ■ m '■! Il ll * I! 1 " "" jü» gears up for VBS Every one's a champion at Vacation Bible School. Orono United Church will be running running their Vacation Bible School program next week, starting on Monday August 15, till Friday August 19. Organizers have decided to focus on a sports theme for the week and are calling the program--"God's All-Star Champion." The program which will run each morning, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon will feature games, crafts, snack time, Bible story time and memory work. Organizers are expecting a good turn out again for this popular program as everyone is welcome. The church is located at the comer of Park and Church Street, Orono. I The fee this year is $10 for the week, or $25 for a family of three or more. For more information call Bonnie Reid at 905-983-9228. The creation of Hawk Ridge Farm has been on Irv Harrell's mind for over 30 years. After 15 years of politics, and many more as a purchasing purchasing agent for a large firm, Oshawa Regional Councillor Irv Harrell decided that it was time to move on. I was looking for property long before I could afford to buy it Harrell told the Orono Times reporter, on a tour of Irv WreH of Hawk Ridge Farm It more than pleate with the success of the msny thousand seedlings he planted over the past few years. the Farm, last Friday morning. His wife saw the real estate listing for a 66 acre property on the north side of Concession Road 7, just west of the Clarke/Darlington Townline Road, only 15 minutes minutes from his home, which Harrell began walking intensively, intensively, looking for anything that shouldn't be there. In June 2000 he purchased the property property with the intension of turning turning it into a Land Stewardship Program.. A former member of the Durham Region Planning Committee, and Chairperson of the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA) Harrell said "I've always had the feeling it's not what we build, but what we leave that's important." "This land stewardship is something I've.been thinking about for a long time,' he said. "I've always been of the opinion opinion that people don't own the land. We arc simply the stewards stewards of the land for the time we are here." While he realizes that most people are not in a position to embark on a stewardship project project of the size he's taken on, Harrell believes the idea will take off eventually in small incremental steps. On almost every farm there is land that is not suitable for production, according to Harrell. "If a farmer planted 100 seedlings every year, which is not a big investment, in 10 years time there would be a significant change to the area, and it would improve the value of the farm," he stated. While Harrell concedes that his farming neighbours probably think he's a bit nuts, his neighbour to the north has been asking him questions about an area on his farm that is prone to erosion. Harrell thinks that in a few years he will take it out of agricultural production. "Private land stewardship, in its simplest terms, is to leave the land in better condition condition than when you found it," said Harrell. "This is done by preserving the existing ecological ecological structure and enhancing enhancing it by adding native trees, grasses, plants and flowers." Harrell's land, which was in agricultural production for well over 100 years before he purchased it, is now growing a crop of timber, and Harrell admits he probably won't live to see any harvest. It's this long turnaround time that keeps many from embarking on such projects according to Harrell. Harrell's property con- HAWK RIDGE FARM see page 3