Ep. 4 Hitting DELETE on iTrash

image: roundedoff.com

Think back to you or your family’s first television, and then think back to your first desktop computer, printer, cell phone or Walkman. Now think of how many different versions of each you've had since. Dot-matrix printers, tube televisions and dilapidated CPU towers, many people have at least one or two of these still kicking around their house collecting dust. 

Electronic technology, especially over the past 2 decades has advanced so much that it seems every month or so such that a new platform, version or model appears on the market. Television, to the personal computer and onto laptops, mp3 players, smart phones & tablets. These products were all  invented to make our lives more enjoyable, productive and connected. However for all the good these products have brought us in business, entertainment and bringing us closer together they have also brought with them their own problems. As technology changes and the demands on these devices become more advanced the previous generations are left behind and the old, broken and deemed obsolete devices are thrown away for more current versions, creating E-Waste.

E-Waste refers to not only the shells of these devices but the circuitry and internal components of our discarded electronic equipment. These internal components contain any combination of potentially toxic substances such as lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium. If not properly processed, these internal components can leak and leach these harmful compounds into the environment where they can cause serious damage not only to the natural system but to anything which comes in contact with them by proxy, potentially causing major biological harm.

The Ontario Electronic Stewardship (OES), a recently formed not for profit organization aimed at promotion of proper E-Waste processing and recycling published their first annual report in 2009-2010 and highlighted a number of baffling statistics about E-Waste in our province. During 2009/2010 in Ontario the OES collected and diverted 17,302,667 Kg of discarded electronic equipment from landfills. This breaks down to 1.3Kg of E-Waste per person in Ontario in 2009/10.  

To combat this issue here in London the city has decided to no longer accept E-Waste in regular curbside garbage pickup. Concurrently with this 3 locations for E-Waste disposal are available, these 3 sites are of no charge to use and are open to all London residents and local businesses. 

Household Special Waste Depot                  Oxford St Community EnvDepot

     3502 Manning Dr                                                     1450 Oxford St W

                                    Clarke Rd Community EnvDepot

                                                    28 Clarke Rd

Friends of the Coves for the month of July will be running an E-Waste collection program from our main office here in Wortley Village. We will be collecting your old, used broken and unwanted electronics and delivering them to one of the depots free of charge. If you would like to take part in this program feel free to contact our office at:

Friends of the Coves Subwatershed Inc
111 Elmwood Ave East
519 640 5397

For more information on E Waste and where you can drop off your old equipment check out:

Ontario Electronics Stewardship 

City of London Electronics Recycling

Ep. 3 A Buckthorn in my side

Since joining FOTCSI I have had the chance to get out and explore the sub-watershed and the different communities in and around the Coves, Silver Creek Ravine and Euston Park.  Not unlike many, many, sites across southern Ontario the Coves sub-watershed has become inundated with the invasive species:  European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). 

To most, European Buckthorn looks like just another member of the forest community.  However Buckthorn represents a real threat to native species as it is rapidly pinching out available growing space, light and is seriously hindering the growth of seedling and saplings of important native plants in southern Ontario.

What unleashed this forest scourge? Environmental vanity. European Buckthorn’s original purpose for import was for use in gardens for it’s aesthetic value.Buckthorn is now #2 on the Ontario noxious plant list, and it’s potential to spread rapidly is very real as birds and animals that feed on the berries transport the seeds and promote the further growth, spread and germination of new Buckthorn. 

To locate Buckthorn here in London you don’t need to look very far; woodlots, fence lines, pastures and unused farmland are all very common locations to find patches and thickets full of Buckthorn.  Controlling and removing Buckthorn is dually important as the plant also acts a host for puccinia coronata, a fungi which causes a disease called crown rust in Oats. This may not be an immediate danger in urban setting but on agricultural land this could be potentially hazardous to the cereal crop.  All this considered it’s hard to believe European Buckthorn is still available at some nurseries.

To identify European Buckthorn invasions of your own neighborhood use these characteristics:

Size: Multi-stem shrub to a bushy small tree up to 6m tall

Leaves: Typically opposite (2 per node) in arrangement, oblong shape, with 2-4 strong veins arcing to the leaf tip from the midrib, may have fine teeth on leaf edge.

Stem: Individuals over a year old will develop thorns at tips of stems

Fruits: 5-6mm in diameter, black/purple in color

Flower: Green/yellow, clustered at base of leaves.

Ep. 2 ReForest London's Million Tree Challenge

Last Friday June 17^th, ReForest London (a not for profit organization here in the forest city) kicked-off for their Million Tree Challenge.

Attended by a number of honorable guests including London mayor Joe Fontana (Pictured below), Members of Provincial Parliament Chris Bentley & Deb Matthews and Member of Parliament Ed Holder, ReForest London launched their plan to plant a million new trees in the forest city over the next 10 years.  Already responsible for planting over 8,000 new native trees and shrubs since 2008 ReForest London is calling out to all London businesses, individuals and organizations to take part and help achieve their goal.  

The first act of the challenge is to plant one tree for every Londoner over the next three years, over 330,000 trees.  Deb Matthews, MPP for London North-Centre and Ontario Minster of Health briefly spoke on the goals of ReForest London saying that “audacious goals, achieve audacious results” and further commenting on the provinces own audacious plans to plant 100 million trees between now and 2020. 

The next move in achieving these “audacious” goals belongs to all the people, schools, community organizations, businesses and institutions of the forest city. ReForest London continues to look for new partners at every level to pledge to plant new trees and register their planting with ReForest London so they can accurately track progress over the coming years.  London’s tree cover, which is currently just shy of 25%, is set to potentially double over the next decade as the challenge presses forward. Community partners such as London Health Sciences Centre have committed to planting more trees on their campuses and more partners are climbing on board to support the grass-roots movement to ReForest the Forest City.  

Here at Friends of the Coves Subwatershed Inc we have committed as a community partner to promote the mission of the challenge and are encouraging the members of the Coves community to both take part in the planting and to register with the Million Tree Challenge website.  We will also be running our own planting events in the Coves come the fall.

To pledge your support and to get involved with ReForest London and the Million Tree Challenge  you can visit their websites at www.milliontrees.ca or www.reforestlondon.ca 

Ep 1.1 - Geography of The Coves ESA (Environmentally Significant Area)

To set the scene for the rest of the summer the area highlighted above in yellow represents the geographic location of the Coves. The Coves themselves were formed by what was previously a meander of the Thames river which presently flows from the Forks just northeast of the Coves. The formation that makes up the Coves is called an oxbow lake (my later episodes will illustrate exactly how these form).
The ESA itself primarily includes the three main oxbow ponds of the coves which were once part of the original Thames river section and the connected ravine which extends south. This region outlined in red represents the Coves subwatershed. Subwatershed identifies that the ground water runnoff for this immediate area will collect and drain into the coves ponds & ravines.

Ep. 1 Summer in The Coves

Hello and welcome to the inaugural episode of The Cove Life!

My name is Chas and I am the summer student here at Friends of the Coves Subwatershed Inc (FOTCSI).
Friends of the Coves is a not for profit environmental organization located in Wortley village in south London. Our mission is that the quality of life in our community is enhanced through the protection, conservation and stewardship of The Coves. Over the next 11 weeks I will be blogging about my experiences with FOTCSI and covering many events throughtout the summer! As well I will be posting weekly episiodes on the history, community and issues related to the Coves including helpful tips and suggestions on how you can have a positive impact on your own environment. 

All that being said welcome again to The Cove Life!