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• ' A W ;v:} hits : Comment.. Bob Murray, an artist from Ajax, poses beside a mural entitled entitled "Karamandanda Magwa" which was on display at a show of native art on Saturday. The exhibition took place at the McCauley Log home on Andelwood Court. A total of seven artists displayed their work at the attractive log home. Voluntary Voluntary donations collected at the door raised about $310 for the /Salvation Army. Five per cent of all sales were donated to the Atenlos native women's shelter. Newcastle Writer Receives Honor For Crime Novel Newcastle author, Gregory Ward was one of three finalists out of six short-listed for the Arthur Ellis Best Novel of the Year Award. He was nominated for his suspense novel, Water Damage. Named after the country's last hangman, the Arthur Ellis awards are presented each year by the Crime Writers of Canada. Recipients in six categories are chosen by a panel of judges. Categories Categories include: Best Play, Best Juvenile, Juvenile, Best True Crime, Best Short Story, Best First Novel and Best Novel. The judges' final selection for Best Novel was John Lawrence Reynolds Reynolds for Gypsy Sins. Gregory Ward said he was very pleased to have his novel nominated. nominated. - Water Damage is his second novel. novel. It is the story of a man's search to uncover a long-hidden secret following following an invitation to his private school reunion. - Too late, Paul Preedy discovers he has entered a deadly race to out-run his past, as well as a present terror. Water. Damage has recently been released in paperback. Before turning his talents to writing writing fiction full-time, Ward was an advertising copywriter in Toronto. He is currently working on his third hovel, a thriller about the international international car business. by Lorraine Manfredo The reason Clarington residents can hike in the Ganaraska forest today, today, iristead of the Ganaraska desert, is a visionary report written 50 years ago. When A. H. Richardson's Ganaraska Ganaraska Watershed Report was published published in 1944, much of the terrain atop the Oak Ridges Moraine had become a treeless wasteland due to the uncontrolled harvest of great pines for shipbuilding during the nineteenth. century and the clear cutting for farming that followed. "The area was filled with blow sands. It was reminiscent of the Sahara desert." "The area was filled with blow sands," according to the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority spokesperson Scott Berry. "It was reminiscent of the Sahara desert in some parts." Clearing this poor agricultural land of its natural cover also created chronic flooding problems south of the ridges, he stated during an address address at the June 10th meeting of the Bowmanville Rotary Club on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the watershed report The Ganaraska Region Conservation Conservation Authority was founded in 1946 two years after the report was published. published. A. H. Richardson was an early proponent of the ecosystem approach approach to environmental management. management. \ ■ As of 1991, 20,000 acres in Northumberland, Clarington and surrounding townships have been re-claimed and close to half of this has been reforested with pines, mixed hardwoods, birches, elms and berry bushes to provide foraging foraging food for wildlife. "It is now the largest continuous forest in Southern Ontario," said Berry. The GRCA employs 13 staff and is supported by the Ministry of Natural Resources, eight municipalities, municipalities, and revenue from properties. There are more than 35 kilometers kilometers of wilderness trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding and skiing in the forest. The Ministry of Natural Natural Resources also permits hunting and snowmobiling in designated areas. areas. In addition to its reforestation ef forts, the Ganaraska Region Conservation Conservation Authority closely studies the habits and behavior of rivers in order order to protect populated areas down- "It is now the largest continuous forest in Southern Ontario. " Electrical "doghouses", or elevated elevated monitoring stations, located near the river gauge the river height, flow velocity, precipitation, ice buildup and snow melt. The stations are linked by modem to GRCA head office in Port Hope, which is hooked into Environment Canada. "We can very accurately predict the kind of floods that will occur," Scott said. "We are the first line of defence to alert municipal crews, and emergency response teams in the event of flooding." The Ganaraska Region Conserve tion Authority is also responsible for defining the flood plain. Developers who plan to fill in any of the flood basin for buildings must make compensating cuts of equal proportion so that the waters Continued on Page 7 Scott Berry, communications coordinator for the Ganaraska Region Region Conservation Authority, is presented with a token of appreciation appreciation from Bowmanville Rotary Club President Joe Sweet following his address to the club on June 9th. Mr. Berry told Rotary members the GRCA may have to generate more revenue through timber or land sales to compensate for dwindling provincial funding.