Amidst a quest to become a “Bird Friendly City” in the wings in the City of Kawartha Lakes, residents are invited to vote for their favourite feathered friend in a contest to kick off awareness.

The Bird Friendly Kawartha Lakes (BFKL) team has launched the Kawartha Lakes Bird of the Year contest, where community members can cast their ballot for their choice bird from a selection of 11.

“As we celebrate the City of Kawartha Lakes becoming Canada’s most recent bird-friendly certified city, we are looking forward to promoting local bird-friendly initiatives starting with a competition to choose our inaugural annual bird,” Thom Luloff, BFKL group member, told kawarthaNOW.

Luloff is the academic quality assurance lead and a professor in the school of environmental and natural resources sciences at Fleming College’s Frost campus in Lindsay. He also serves as board chair of the Kawartha Wildlife Centre.

“This competition will be a wonderful opportunity for bird enthusiasts of all ages to come together, celebrate our avian neighbours, and showcase the incredible diversity of bird species that call Kawartha Lakes home while inspiring action to protect and conserve birds in the City of Kawartha Lakes,” he said.

A Bird Friendly City is a community where threats to birds are reduced, and nature is restored so native bird populations can thrive. Residents are actively engaged in admiring and monitoring local bird populations, and organizations host events to protect birds. When a city gets certified as bird friendly by Nature Canada, it means it has met important standards to keep birds safe, the group noted in a media release.

In the last 50 years, North American bird populations have dropped by more than 25 per cent. Luloff, who teaches in the conservation biology and fish and wildlife programs, said he knows firsthand “the multitude of pressures that birds are facing in our local area.

“Rapid urbanization and land development have resulted in habitat loss and fragmentation, diminishing the availability of suitable nesting and foraging sites for many bird species,” he said. “Predation from domestic cats (and) collisions with buildings and vehicles have also emerged as significant threats, leading to injuries and fatalities, particularly during migration seasons.”

Additionally, the effects of climate change — such as altered precipitation patterns and habitat shifts — have added pressure on bird populations, challenging their ability to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions, Luloff added.

For the Kawartha Lakes Bird of the Year contest, there will be two rounds of voting, with the first round closing on Migratory Bird Day, which is on May 11. The top five birds will move on to the second round of voting, which will close on June 28.

There are 11 birds on the docket: the northern cardinal, the black-capped chickadee, the American goldfinch, the barred owl, the red-winged blackbird, the tree swallow, the eastern loggerhead shrike, the osprey, the downy woodpecker, the blue jay, and the barn swallow.

During the second round of voting, the Bird Friendly Kawartha Lakes social media accounts will feature fun facts about each of the five birds and why they’re important to the community.

The official Kawartha Lakes’ Bird of the Year, as voted by participants, will be revealed on June 30. To find out more about the competition and to vote, visit the Jump In Kawartha Lakes website jumpinkawarthalakes.ca/bird2024. You will need to register for a free account to cast a vote.

Since 2023, BFKL has been working with Nature Canada and the City of Kawartha Lakes towards achieving the bird-friendly city designation. The group submitted an application on behalf of the municipality in February 2024. The City of Peterborough and Selwyn Township have already previously received the certification.

BFKL consists of representatives from the Kawartha Lakes Environmental Advisory Committee, Kawartha Conservation, Kawartha Land Trust, Fleming College, Kawartha Field Naturalists, Kawartha Wildlife Centre, and Kawartha Bird Control.

Meanwhile, to confront some of the challenges impacting area birds, Luloff’s students have responded with concrete action by forming the Fleming Bird Conservation Committee.

“The students have installed professional window collision decals on the Frost Student Association Building — the Auk’s Lodge — making this the first bird-safe certified building in the entire region,” he noted.

“With the actions of our current students in mind and being inspired by this collective action, I represent this group on the BFKL team, and proudly showcase the efforts that can be achieved with collaborative effort. It is my hope to encourage more residents in our community to follow their example.”

If you thought the preview was something, just wait for the main event.

That’s the sentiment expressed by a group of city residents vehemently opposed to the City of Peterborough’s planned redevelopment of Bonnerworth Park — a $4.4 million dollar facelift that, should it move forward, will see 16 pickleball courts, a bike ‘pump’ track, and a parking lot replace the park’s existing two ball diamonds and much of its greenspace.

On Tuesday night (April 2), city councillors meeting as general committee were greeted by a very full and very vocal gallery of residents who live in close proximity to the park.

Their objection to the plan centres around the heightened noise and traffic they say will result from the pickleball courts, the loss of cherished and well-used urban greenspace, and what they say was a complete lack of consultation with them before the project report and its attached recommendations were written for councillors’ consideration.

While residents weren’t allowed to appeal to councillors directly at Tuesday’s meeting, deputations will be allowed this coming Monday night (April 8) when councillors meet again to ratify business conducted at the committee level. All indications are the neighbours of the park will be out in full force to make their case.

“We are digging in our heels on this matter,” says Elaine Gerelus who, with her husband John, has lived on nearby Middleton Drive for 23 years. “This is about our lifestyle, our ability to enjoy our yard and have friends over. We (residents) have invested a lot in our homes. This will have a huge impact on us.”

John says that, at one point during Tuesday’s meeting, he was optimistic that councillors would vote to take a step back and reconsider approving the park redevelopment plan.

That hope was quickly dashed when two motions put forward by Town Ward councillor Joy Lachica — the first calling for council discussion of alternative locations for pickleball courts and the second calling for additional consultation with neighbouring residents — were defeated.

“We’re not saying stop the project — we’re saying pause the project,” John says. “Let’s start the process again. This (plan) is really short sighted. It’s a knee jerk reaction to find a location to meet a need. Somebody, somewhere, said ‘Let’s do this.'”

Also planning to speak this Monday night is Richard Scott, a Middleton Drive resident and retired park and environmental planner who worked for Parks Canada and the National Capital Commission.

“We don’t understand why the city hasn’t done the research (into other possible locations) or, if it has done that, why it’s being ignored,” he says.

“This is the monopolization of a lot of space that is now available for all members of the community to use. Now they’re going to turn it into a park that serves specific user groups only. And in the winter, it will be unusable by anybody.”

Councillor Lachica plans to reintroduce her original motion on Monday night.

“There were two (council) votes around the motion,” she explains. “The first vote was to have an urgent public consultation meeting and also have reports on tennis and baseball (needs) come back. That lost 7 to 4.”

Lachica along with fellow Town Ward councillor Alex Bierk and councillors Keith Riel and Dave Haacke supported that motion.

“It then went back to my main motion to press pause so staff can come back with alternatives (to Bonnerworth Park), which lost 8 to 3.”

Only Lachica, Bierk, and Riel supported the original motion.

Of particular concern to Lachica, Bierk, and Riel is that the report recommending Bonnerworth be redeveloped for pickleball and the bike track was unanimously approved by council back in October — well before the design was prepared and presented at a March 21st public meeting.

It was only at that public meeting when the scope of the park’s redevelopment became fully known for the first time, and neighbours’ antennae went up.

That flies in the face of typical procedure that sees councillors vote after having reviewed site plans and other related material.

“I believe a few of us at the table really believed that major projects like this that are facilities-based and affect the whole city need to come before council in a visual way before a finalization of the plan going forward,” Lachica says. “I can speak for Alex and Keith when I say we voted (in October) for the needs of the city. We completely agree there are pickleball needs that Peterborough needs to address.”

“If you look at that report, there’s a qualifier that reads ‘if Bonnerworth is approved’. Bonnerworth isn’t approved. There hasn’t been traffic study. There hasn’t been a noise study to verify if this (Bonnerworth) is a feasible place for 16 courts. We came into that vote with an expectation that we would see what it looks like based on studies being done before anything is feasible or approved.”

Residents of the area also lament the effect that excessive noise, particularly in the evening, and increased traffic will have on residents of the nearby Marycrest At Inglewood Seniors’ Residence on Monaghan Road, as well as those living at Hunt Terrace, a Peterborough Housing Corporation building on Bonaccord Street.

Elaine makes it clear that she and her neighbours aren’t anti-pickleball.

“We’re now NIMBYS,” she says, referencing Not-In-My-Back-Yard accusations.

“The truth is, yeah, not in my backyard but not in anybody’s backyard,” clarifies John, noting a lesson should have be learned from the planned removal of four pickleball courts at Knights of Columbus due to their close proximity to houses raising concerns over excessive noise and lighting.

The potential for the same noise issues at the Bonnerworth Park site was noted in a November 2023 document called “Provision Strategy for Tennis and Pickleball Courts,” that was prepared for the city by consultants The ReThink Group and Basterfield & Associates Landscape Architects.

“Since sound travels out and up, and rebounds off hard surfaces, the amount of noise generated from 16 heavily used pickleball courts may be a problem for nearby residents,” the document states. “Sound barriers may not sufficiently mitigate noise travelling upward.”

In his remarks this Monday, Scott says “We’re going to offer a path forward … identify where the gaps are.”

“Some things the city has done well. Studies have identified what the overall citywide need for facilities is. But we’re gong to remind them they jumped from a high level right down to a specific plan for a specific park with specific facilities without understanding any of the implications.”

“Most planning processes, if you’re doing a site selection process, is you first identify a range of sites and you develop criteria to assess them. In the case of pickleball, known to be a controversial site location issue, you do criteria such as noise, traffic, and so on. They’re doing that at the back end of the process. It’s backwards.”

Meanwhile, representatives of the 400-member strong Peterborough Pickleball Association (PBA) are also expected at the podium this Monday night.

That’s according to PBA board member Judy Byrne, who says the association “was led to believe” the past Monday’s council meeting “was a closed meeting. That’s why we didn’t show up.”

Byrne adds the PBA has a petition with close to 600 signatures supporting the development of pickleball courts at Bonnerworth Park. That will be presented to councillors on Monday night.

“We’ve been playing at Bonnerworth for years with no noise complaints,” says Byrne, referencing the eight courts now located just east of the park.

“This (Bonnerworth) is a heavily underutilized park. There’s small clusters of people playing ball in the corners but that’s it pretty much throughout the day. It’s a park that needs development. It looks desolate.”

Saying she believes “the city is going to look after our interests,” Byrne is confident the planned park redevelopment will go ahead.

“If it’s not going to be there, it’s going to be somewhere,” she says. “But why not there? It’s easy to get to. It (the area) already has a tremendous amount of traffic noise and it’s a park that needs some visual help.”

The PBA, says Byrne, made some alternative site suggestions — the former Peterborough Naval Club property and Fleming College were two — but “they were pretty much shot down except for that place (Bonnerworth).”

“We’re not trying to bully our way through this. If for some reason all of our efforts to deaden the sound don’t work, we will continue to try and do something else to mitigate the noise. Maybe we’ll change the balls that we use. We’re not trying to be bad neighbours.”

Established in October 2021, the Peterborough Pickleball Association is a non-profit organization, the mission of which is to provide opportunities for people of all ages, skill levels, abilities and backgrounds to participate in pickleball, while promoting physical fitness and social engagement, good sportsmanship and fun through organized recreational and competitive play.

An estimated 350,000 people currently play pickleball across Canada, making it one of the country’s fastest-growing sports.

Voting is now open for the Peterborough Public Library’s second annual “One Book, One Ptbo” initiative, which builds community through the shared experience of reading the same book.

Earlier this year, the library asked community members to recommend titles they thought would make a good choice for this year’s selection.

The three finalists for this year’s One Book, One Ptbo are What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad, River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta, and The Story of Us by Catherine Hernandez.

“We had an overwhelming number of responses,” says community development librarian Karen Bisschop in a media release. “It was hard to select only three titles to include in our shortlist.”

Voting is open until Tuesday, April 23rd in person at the library at 345 Aylmer Street North and online at ptbolibrary.ca/onebook.

After the winning book is selected, the library will run special programs and events inspired by the themes found within the narrative of the winning book. The initiative will culminate in a grand finale evening in the fall with the book’s author.

The selected book and author of the inaugural One Book, One Ptbo program last year was Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice.

The library says Rice’s book was checked out of the library 630 times, with a public reading by Rice on November 15 attended by more than 260 people — requiring the event to be moved from the library to the Market Hall.

“Last year’s book ended up appealing to teenagers — a whole different generation,” Bisschop says. “You never know which groups you will engage across your community.”

Below is a description of each of the books vying to be this year’s One Book, One Ptbo selection.

Written by Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, the 2021 Giller Prize winning What Strange Paradise is the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world, but it is also a story of empathy and indifference and of hope and despair — and about the way each of those things can blind us to reality. In alternating chapters, we learn about nine-year-old Amir’s life and how he came to be on the boat, and we follow him and the teenager Vänna, who rescued him as they make their way toward safety.

Canadian writer Zalika Reid-Benta’s debut novel River Mumma is an exhilarating contemporary fantasy novel about a young Black woman who navigates her quarter-life-crisis while embarking on a mythical quest through the streets of Toronto. One evening, the Jamaican water deity River Mumma appears to Alicia, telling her that she has 24 hours to scour the city for her missing comb. With the clock ticking, Alicia’s quest through the city broadens into a journey through time — to find herself and what the river carries.

Canadian writer, author, and playwright Catherine Hernandez, whose 2017 debut novel Scarborough was adapted into a feature film, published her latest novel The Story of Us in 2023. It follows overseas Filipino worker Mary Grace Concepcion who travels to Toronto where she becomes a personal support worker and begins caring for Liz, an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Narrated by the all-seeing eye of Mary Grace’s newborn baby, The Story of Us is a novel about sisterhood, about blood and chosen family, and about how belonging can be found where we least expect it.

Partial funding for One Book, One Ptbo was made possible by a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough.

With the highly anticipated total solar eclipse only days away, Northumberland County is asking residents to make safety and emergency preparedness priorities in the coming days.

Northumberland County is in the path of totality for the eclipse occurring on Monday (April 8). For the first time since 1979, Ontario will be in the path of a total solar eclipse and southern Northumberland County is a prime viewing area to see the celestial phenomenon.

Expecting residents and visitors alike to gather in hopes of seeing the rare occurrence, the county is asking people to put safety first.

“Our top priority is the safety of residents,” said Northumberland County Warden Brian Ostrander in a statement.

“We are anticipating a large influx of visitors to our community, so we urge everyone to take the necessary precautions and follow safety guidelines to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience.”

Residents are encouraged to take the following safety precautions during the solar eclipse event:

• Do not look at the sun without eye protection. Residents should only use certified safety glasses to protect their eyes when viewing the eclipse
• Given the anticipated influx of visitors, residents should stock up well ahead of time on essential supplies and fuel
• People should plan ahead to determine their eclipse viewing location, arrive early, and avoid unnecessary travel during the event
• Residents should ensure their emergency kit is up-to-date and easily accessible
• People should keep small children and pets indoors during the eclipse
• Residents should follow any additional safety guidelines provided by local authorities and health officials.

VIDEO: 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Northumberland County

Meanwhile, the county is also taking a proactive approach and planning ahead for the event.

“As a precaution, Northumberland County is taking steps to enhance emergency readiness, including increasing paramedic staffing and having roads crews on standby that day,” the county noted in a media release. “To ensure the safety of residents during the eclipse event, the county is also adjusting operations where services cannot safely be delivered in the dark.”

County recycling centres (CRCs), located in Bewdley, Seymour, and Brighton, will be closing early on April 8th at 1 p.m. and will remain closed for the remainder of the day. This decision is being made as CRCs are not designed to operate in the dark, with limited on-site lighting, the county noted. Regular operating hours will resume the following day, ensuring minimal disruption to waste and recycling services.

In addition, Northumberland County Forest will be closed from noon on Sunday, April 7 through to the morning of Tuesday, April 9.

“This temporary closure aims to ensure the well-being of visitors and pets during the eclipse event, including avoiding any potential safety hazards from active nocturnal wildlife,” the county stated.

On April 8, county roads crews will be on standby to respond to any road issues or closures.

The county’s long-term care home in Cobourg, the Golden Plough Lodge, will have additional support on the day shift as a precautionary measure to mitigate any potential staffing challenges later in the day, the county noted. The Northumberland County Archives and Museum will be closed on April 8.

If needed, the county is also prepared to activate its emergency operations centre, which is used to manage an emergency situation and maintain services to the community.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly between the earth and the sun, casting its shadow on the earth’s surface. A total solar eclipse happens when the moon completely blocks the face of the sun, casting a shadow on the earth — visible to people in what is referred to as the “path of totality.”

Assuming there are ideal weather conditions (a sunny day with few or no clouds in the sky), residents will witness the eclipse beginning just after 2 p.m. With southern Northumberland County including Brighton, Colborne, Grafton, Cobourg, and Port Hope being in the path of totality, residents will see darkness for a period of one to two minutes.

In addition to southern Northumberland County, Hamilton, Brantford, St. Catharines, and Niagara Falls are also in the path of totality, along with some communities in southwestern Ontario.

During a recent media briefing, reporters heard how Niagara Falls is seeing a dramatic increase in hotel reservations being booked as people plan to take in the once-in-a-lifetime event.

The county said it will continue to monitor the weather and event activities for April 8 and maintain communication with partner municipalities and Emergency Management Ontario.

For more information and updates on the eclipse event and temporary closures, visit northumberland.ca/NoCoEclipse.

In its ongoing work aimed at improving the health care system in Northumberland, the Ontario Health Team of Northumberland (OHT-N) is welcoming aboard a new executive lead.

The collaborative has announced the incoming OHT-N executive lead will be Andrea Groff.

The OHT-N is a county-wide team of patients, caregivers, physicians and health and community care providers working together to enhance co-ordination and experience of local health and community services. In recent years, OHT-N partners successfully launched three priority health care projects in Northumberland County — a volunteer peer support initiative, a community paramedicine program, and the region’s first rural outreach clinic.

Key to coordinating OHT-N operations and advancing the work of OHT-N priority projects, Groff’s role will support OHT-N Collaboration Council partners as they advance the priorities identified by the community and set out in their 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, noted a media release.

Joining the OHT-N this month, Groff previously served as an executive director with the All Family Health Team in Markham.

“Andrea joins the OHT-N as an experienced health care leader at a very exciting time,” said Susan Walsh, Northumberland Hills Hospital president and CEO, and OHT-N co-chair.

“Northumberland was one of the first 24 Ontario Health Teams (OHT) in the province and we are more committed than ever to achieving the province’s vision of a better connected, people-centred health care system. Our partnership has grown, and other voices are welcomed to move this work forward. We require strong leadership at the centre to support the great ambitions we have, and we are confident that Andrea has the skills and energy to move the OHT-N’s work forward.”

Groff has a combination of experience in interprofessional primary care, addiction and mental health, home and community care and teaching, and possesses a master’s degree in health leadership. OHT-N said she brings hands-on expertise in both leadership and operations in all the priority areas the OHT-N is striving to enhance.

Experienced in regional advisory councils aimed at improving integrated care, as well as stakeholder engagement and quality improvement, Groff “has a values-based and collaborative leadership style, with a proven track record for change advocacy,” the release noted.

The OHT-N team has grown considerably since its launch in December 2019. It was redirected to focus on coordinating the local response to COVID-19, but OHT-N partners also successfully launched the three priority projects in Northumberland:

• The rural outreach clinic (ROC) in Cramahe Township is part of OHT-N efforts to bring services to rural community locations in Northumberland. The aim is to reduce barriers to care such as access, transportation and outreach challenges. Colborne ROC services are provided through a collaboration of OHT-N partners and Cramahe Township.
• Northumberland Paramedics’ Community Paramedicine programs deliver non-emergency in-home health care directly to residents in need. These preventative care programs support vulnerable community members and seniors in the community, while also helping to manage the high demand for emergency services, hospitals and clinics.
• Partnering with Community Care Northumberland to train volunteers, the peer support initiative matches volunteers with older adults living with complex conditions. The connection aims to enhance the client’s well-being and independence by improving social supports and access to community resources.

OHT-N co-chairs recently facilitated a day of planning with community partners and local patient and caregivers with lived experience.

They stepped away from the event with an outline for the operational priorities for the year ahead, and a renewed commitment to four specific priorities: improving access to primary and specialty care and services in the region, supporting older adults with complex conditions to live and age well at home, improving access and services for those who have mental health and addiction needs, and digital transformation.

“We have all been working hard to set and move forward the OHT-N priorities that are right for this community at this time,” said Taryn Rennicks, executive director, Community Health Centres of Northumberland, and OHT-N co-chair.

“The focused leadership that Andrea will bring, at this time, cannot be understated. We have much work to do and we are thrilled that she has chosen to bring her skills and experience to Northumberland.”

The province’s vision is to have all health care coordinated through OHTs in the future. Initially, OHTs will test this model of care through targeted projects serving specific populations.

Northumberland County has a population with more seniors than the rest of Ontario. Many residents live in rural areas. As a result, the OHT-N’s initial focus has been to co-ordinate health care services for older adults living with complex conditions and rural populations — specifically those who experience barriers to care.

For more information about the OHT-N, visit www.ohtnorthumberland.ca, email info@ohtnorthumberland.ca, or call 905-376-7206.