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Editorial: The best family activity... PLANT A TREE for you own Earth Day! By Barbara Karthein, Editor of “Life on the Lake” What better way to celebrate Earth Day this year with your child than to plant a tree and watch it grow with them. There is nothing that you can do, or spend money , that gives such long term benefits to you, to your home, or to the environment. Buy a chesterfield or a set of drapes and immediately they start to depreciate! A tree just gets better and better. Trees | planted with my boys when they were little are now fifty feet high and they still marvel at them. April 22 is Earth Day, a time when around the world people remember our beautiful world. However, if Ontario weather is true to form this year, April 22 will probably be miserable and cold, wet or windy. Not great planting weather for little ones. the Lake Stewards suggest you pick your own Earth Day, perhaps on your child or grandchild’s birthday, or any beautiful spring day when young trees are easily available in your local nursery and the soil is warm for small hands. Whether you plant on your own property or on a friend's prop- erty, create a ritual of the planting, care and regular visitation. Choose a new tree each year. The best trees for this are small trees that children can watch grow as they too get big- ger each year. THE GREAT STORY OF TREES: The great environmental story for children is that planting trees is one of the best possible actions they can take again against global warmin @ On average, an acre of trees can store 2.6 tons of carbon pollution annually. They remove many other pollutants from the air as well. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as ten people inhale in a Well placed trees cut heating and cooling energy requirements. Parking areas with- out tree cover can cause urban areas to be five to nine degrees warmer than sur- rounding areas. Trees planted to break winter winds can reduce heating costs by as much as 10%. @ Trees provide natural habitat for birds, insects and other wildlife. Trees and natural areas pull water down into the spoil, replenishing the groundwater table. Tree roots prevent erosion and stabilize shorelines. @ Trees increase the value of your home significantly. IF YOU HAVE NO SPACE TO PLANT A TREE HERE’S THE SOLUTION: The Township has a program called “The gift that grows” that gives you an oppor- tunity to plant a special tree, probably in a park near you. The cost is $500 per tree but for that you get a good size tree (ball and burlap) that is able to resist vandalism, good planting, some maintenance, a one year guarantee and a plaque so that you can tell your own story. Just call Brenda Robinson, at the Township (905) 985-7346, ext. 126. They will help you pick tree type that you will like that will grow well in the location and notify you when it is planted. Happy planting! Are you interested in becoming a member Scugog Lake Steward? spe zee have questions about the Lake? at bkarthein@yahoo.ca We would be very pleased to hear from you. 22 FOCUS - APRIL 2008 “APRIL.O8/S2pages.indd 22 ® The Scugog Lake Stewards would like to thank the for the support of this issue of fe on the Lake” Eurasian Milfoil munching weevils prove their worth Throughout the United States and southern Canada, the non-native invasive exotic Eurasian water milfoil weed (EWM) is spoiling lakes for recreation and enjoyment. Lake Scugog has EWM “in spades! But, help is on the way in the form of a humble aquatic weevil — about one half the size of a grain of rice — that lives to eat nothing but the invasive, destructive milfoil. he milfoil weevil, which is native but is not found in great numbers in this area, can now be purchased in quantities from EnviroScience, an Ohio based company. In multiple locations in- troduced quantities of the weevils have success- fully gotten EVVM infestations under control. A fix for Lake Scugog is estimated to be approxi- mately $500,000 over two years. The high cost is because implantation of the weevils in the milfoil beds is very labour intensive. However, the little weevils go through four to five generations in one summer! They pass through the egg, only 21 days. Yet each weevil can live as long as 160 days with the females lay- ing over 560 eggs in their lifetime In October, after spending their entire life span under water eating only milfoil, this last generation miraculously grows wings and mi- grates to dry areas of leaf litter on the shoreline where they hibernate. In the words of EnviroScience’s founder, Dr. S. Sheldon, “The weevils are a great way to help control the milfoil, but it's a solution the requires patience.” But to residents of Lake Scugog, burdened with heavy weed populations, waiting two to three years to get their lake back naturally would be genuinely worth it. More on this topic later. focus@observerpub.ca 3723108 10:31:41 AM |