Car-pool, Car-share, Bicycle and Walk more, Active Transportation Advocacy, Micro-mobility options, Take Transit, Travel by Train instead of Air, Local Vacations.
April is a great time of year. It heralds the true beginning of spring with longer days, warm sunshine and soaking rains that wash away the winter blahs. Signs of love are everywhere, from the birds gathering nesting material to the young folk, holding hands in the park.
Perhaps the best part of April is that it heralds Earth Month, a time to think about all of the environmental challenges we are facing and to take positive action to create a sustainable future for us and all the creatures sharing this small planet we call home.
This past Thursday the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario submitted a joint application to the Federal Court to withdraw the federal environmental assessment for Highway 413. The withdrawal means that arguments about the legalities surrounding the Federal Impact Assessment Act will not be clarified by the courts. It also means there will be no opportunity for the court, (and thereby the public) to adjudicate the environmental impacts of building this highway.
“The federal government needs to urgently introduce legislation that updates the Impact Assessment Act and that re-designates the Highway 413 project under it. Revoking the designation before a new Impact Assessment Act is in place was irresponsible and unnecessary,” said Laura Bowman, Staff Lawyer, Ecojustice.
The Brampton Environmental Alliance (BEA) hosted its second annual general meeting this past Wednesday March 13th. Twenty-two individual and organizational members attended along with 9 non-members and 5 guests. Among the guests was Brampton North MPP Graham McGregor who engaged with members at the conclusion of the meeting.
The Rooted in Hope project was officially launched on August 19th in the parking lot of Gore Meadows Recreation Centre. Sonia Maset, Program Administrator for the Brampton Bike Hub trained four senior team leads on bike safety and skills training.
Sonia then took them for a short ride to familiarize them with riding on the roads in and around the recreational facility. Another training event with the “uncles” is scheduled for this Saturday August 26th.
This past Monday August 21st, another training event took place. This time it involved students from local high schools who are to be the team leads for tree planting and monitoring along with a teacher from Louise Arbour Secondary School.
The training event was led by Alice Casselman – President, Association of Canadian Educational Resources (ACER), and Dr. Sadia Butt ACER’s Project Manager who is also an ISA certified arborist with over 20 years experience as an urban forest practitioner, researcher, and environmental educator. Together, Alice and Sadia provided a full day of training to the participants about tree monitoring, tree species identification, knowledge of equipment used in tree monitoring and an introduction to online software that identifies how much carbon a tree is storing based on the data collected.
Data collection is a big part of this project and will be used to help inform the City of Brampton’s urban forest management plan.
The Rooted in Hope Project currently involves three Brampton high schools, Harold M. Brathwaite S.S., Heart Lake S.S, Castlebrooke S.S., with Louise Arbour S.S. expected to join this fall.
Hopefully we will see everyone at the tree planting events on September 6th , September 13th, and September 20th. All events run from 3:30-5:00pm @ Gore Meadows Community Centre! These events are free and open to anyone, especially seniors and students from the community. Click here to register and receive more information.
The Rooted in Hope project is designed to engage both youth and seniors in understanding the importance of urban trees by planting young trees and then monitoring the growth and health of both new and mature trees in their neighbourhoods. It will also use cycling, a form of active transportation, as the primary means of travel to tree monitoring sites thereby keeping carbon emissions to a minimum. Rooted in Hope is funded through the Ontario Seniors Community Grant Program.
One of our volunteers has graciously put together a 13 minute video describing the benefits of urban tree canopy as well as the challenges and threats facing Brampton’s urban forest. See the video below.
The Brampton Environmental Alliance (BEA) is pleased to officially announce, the “Rooted in Hope” project now being delivered by members of the BEA with financial support through the Ontario Seniors Community Grant Program.
The Future of Transportation in the City of Brampton
Sometimes it hard to imagine what is going to happen next week let alone by 2040. But that’s what the City of Brampton Transportation Planning staff are trying to do as they envision how transportation in this City will evolve by the year 2040. They are launching a study to update the current 2015 Brampton Transportation Master Plan into a new Brampton Mobility Plan that will guide the City’s investment in transportation over the next 17 years. They are looking for your input. Join a virtual public meeting on July 18th at 7:00pm. And you can provide comments in a survey and map that is available until the end of July.
I admit that I didn’t know where Peelton Hills Park was when I started out this past Saturday morning for the Sierra Club/CVC tree-planting event. It’s not a park I’ve frequented before. It was a beautiful spring day and Google Maps said it would take me less than 40 minutes to travel the 11.5km by bike.
It was like déja vu all over again! Earth Day, Saturday April 22, 2023 dawned almost identically to the same day last year, cold, rain and, wind. Perhaps not quite as cold, but almost. As one of the exhibitors expressed, “It’s the Earth crying about all the horrible things we’ve done to her in the last year.”
The Brampton Environmental Alliance is pleased to announce that it has received grant funding from Employment and Social Development Canada to implement a “New Horizons for Seniors” project called, “Graceful Aging Through Connecting With Nature”.
Save the date for the Brampton Earth Day Celebration and Climate Change Exhibition April 22nd at Norton Place Park from 12:00-4:00pm.
There will be a light lunch courtesy of the City of Brampton. Local environment organizations, City departments, and others will be on-hand with display tables and activities for adults and kids including
