Gala Celebration of Environmental Excellence
Enviro-Heroes!
Health
Winner: Haliburton Highlands Nordic Trails Association
The Haliburton Nordic Trails Association is a volunteer organization that manages and maintains Nordic ski trails in Haliburton County. The Association's dedicated group of volunteers operates trails in Glebe Park, Moosewoods Trail Centre, Pinestone Resort and Twin Lakes. They are also responsible for negotiating agreements with landowners to provide public access for their network of trails.
These volunteers give many early morning and late evening hours to groom and repair trails, allowing skiers to enjoy the stunning natural landscape our County offers. Not only do they develop new trails and maintain their equipment, Association members must fundraise to add new gear to meet the needs of a complex and challenging set of ski trails. From big jobs such as clearing brush and fixing trails after a winter thaw to the "small" tasks of stoking the fire and offering hot chocolate at Moosewoods' warming hut, the Association's band of volunteers are ever ready to keep the trails open.
Their dedication and passion for this healthy outdoor activity ensures that the Haliburton trail system is the envy of other northern communities.
Description: A person or organization whose environmental activities promote, exemplify or result in healthy lifestyles.
Nominees: Ski Friends of the Frost Centre, Haliburton Nordic Trail Association, Andrea Coysh, Marianne & Richard Taylor
Stewardship
Winner: Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association
The Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association is a volunteer-based organization that has worked tirelessly for many years to preserve the natural heritage of Haliburton County. Three very different projects are especially worthy of recognition.
For more than ten years, the association has worked in a unique partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources to help to preserve the ecologically and economically vital fishery in central Ontario. The HHOA has been key in the re-establishment of Haliburton Gold, the Haliburton strain of lake trout, in Haliburton County lakes. In addition, the association's winter deer feeding program is a model for successful support of at-risk deer by creating trails through heavy snowpacks as well as supplying feed. And when necessary, the HHOA also takes care to reduce human impact on our local environment by cleaning up public access points to more than 50 Haliburton lakes.
Other HHOA programs include an ongoing Wetlands Project with Sir Sandford Fleming College and Queen's University as well as school support for co-op placement programs. Stewardship is defined as "the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care." The Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association surely meets that definition.
Description: A person, landowner or organization that has provided leadership in conserving and protecting our water, forests, flora, fauna or mineral resources.
Nominees: Carolyn Coburn, Mark & Sandra Bramham – Greenmantle Farm, Paul MacInnes, Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association
Education
Winner: YMCA Wanakita
YMCA Wanakita has welcomed campers to Haliburton County since 1953, giving students an appreciation of the natural world that will last them for the rest of their lives. The camp's 900 acres on the shores of Koshlong Lake are a forested classroom that allows Wanakita's staff to educate campers on topics such as wetland and winter ecology, fire building and survival skills while taking them through hikes along the camp's 25 kilometres of trails.
Its new environmentally centered cooking program, Iron Chef, provides an opportunity for students to learn where their food comes from as they compete to make meals using local ingredients. And last year marked Wanakita's 25th year of offering the Institute for Earth Education’s Sunship Earth program that is designed to help students build a relationship with nature and the outdoors through an understanding of the natural environment.
Students get involved in Wanakita's worm and outdoor composting systems and take part in challenges to promote an awareness of the energy consumption in their daily lives and how they can make small changes to limit damage to the environment. Wanakita's efforts to make such valuable education accessible to all will bring dividends to Haliburton and the rest of Canada for generations to come.
Description: A person or group that has effectively organized and delivered environmental education opportunities for children, youth, or adults.
Nominees: Dr Donald A. Smith, YMCA Camp Wanakita, Mark & Sandra Bramham – Greenmantle Farm, Colin Harris – Take Me Outside, Michael Bainbridge & Steve Smith
Business
Winner: Patient News
Patient News has encouraged its employees to lead its Strategic Consumable Recycle and Assessment Program. And it's those employees who have come up with plenty of ideas to increase recycling and save energy. For example, the company has put in a larger composter, which creates fertilizer for its gardens in Haliburton village. It has installed energy-efficient lighting at its plant to save electricity, and switched all its computers to LCD monitors.
Some of the Patient News initiatives go beyond mere recycling to encourage reuse. This eco-aware business returns more than 6,000 paper boxes to its supplier to be used again, and provides staff with reusable cloth shopping bags.
This dedication to the environment also extends outside the doors to its plant, with the creation of Catching Green, which aims to encourage other local businesses to pool their resources and share ideas and successes in becoming environmentally sustainable.
These employee-led programs provide inspiration for every business, large and small, in Haliburton County.
Description: A business or non-profit organization that has excelled in developing "green" business practices and/or providing "green" products/services that protect the environment.
Nominees: Patient News, Zion United Church - Carnarvon
The Arts
Winner: Erin Lynch
Erin Lynch most certainly lives up to that slogan. Natural materials like porcupine quills, seeds and shells, are transformed under her fingers into organic pieces of art. Always the recycler, other people's discarded treasures find new life in Erin's eclectic jewellery.
Erin is a skilled facilitator who teaches jewellery-making to children, sharing with them how she is inspired by nature to create her work. She is also at the heart of The Art Hive, an artists collective in the restored Maple Lake Store, which is partially decorated using reclaimed furnishings from the Maple Lake dump. Erin and a founding group of artists showcase art that reflects the wonders and beauty of the Highlands, while supporting other artists and children in learning to appreciate art and its relationship to nature.
Surely this entrancing marriage of art and the environment is a beacon of inspiration for Haliburton County residents and visitors alike.
Description: An artist who has produced a body of work that celebrates our natural environment.
Nominees: Peter Buwalda, Lisa Barry, Lyn Winans, Sue Forbes, Erin Lynch, Brenda Peddigrew
Youth
Winner: Haliburton Highlands Secondary School Eco Team
The Haliburton Highlands Secondary School Eco Team, under the leadership of student Vicky Bukta, decided that this year they wanted to really make a "BIG" difference. Working together, they have accomplished a significant set of goals. After preparing and submitting a grant application, they won funding to purchase and install a solar panel on the school field scoreboard. They also organized and received funding to build and plant a raised herb garden in the courtyard to promote the local food movement.
This hardworking group of students raised the profile of environmental issues at school with daily activities during Earth Week, promoted an Eco Resolution activity for students, and monitored the vermicomposting program.
The Eco Team also looked beyond the school with some of their initiatives. They participated in the shoreline cleanup of Head Lake, and organized and presented workshops at the 3rd annual Eco Summit at Bark Lake.
What makes all this activity even more impressive is that this group has worked almost entirely independently of the staff facilitator. It is truly a student-directed club.
Their positive energy, enthusiasm and real passion for change has made a BIG difference, and that difference will have long-term and lasting effects on our environment and our future.
Last Updated: Jul 8 2011 3:03:42 pm.
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Photo: Lyn Winans
Did You Know...
that there are 21 Species at Risk in the Haliburton County. These species include American Ginseng, Peregrine Falcon and Five-lined Skink. Find out more about Species at Risk.
