News from November 2009

Board Chair in City “Salute to Excellence”

November 30, 2009

EALT Directors and staff are delighted to congratulate Margaret Reine, our Board Chair, for her recent distinction from the City of Edmonton. She was one of two individuals presented with a Citation for Community Service. Citation Awards are for individuals or groups who have given significant service and inspirational leadership to enrich life in the City in various fields – arts and culture, sports, and community service.

As the City program says:

“Margaret Reine is a dedicated leader in environmental protection and education. Instrumental in establishing the Clifford E. Lee Nature Sanctuary, she is a volunteer with extensive participation in groups relating to natural history, such as the Alberta Water Council, River Valley Alliance and City of Edmonton Master Naturalist Program. Reine has worked as a park naturalist, literacy coordinator and University of Alberta instructor. As well as educating people about natural areas, she spent 16 years as an adult educator teaching literacy students and training volunteers to tutor literacy students. She is currently involved with the Lee Nature Sanctuary Society, the Edmonton and Area Land Trust and the Edmonton Nature Club”.

Way to go, Marg!

Capital Region Board Hears EALT Discussing the Municipal Benefits of Natural Areas, Parks and Rural

November 15, 2009

EALT was invited to give a presentation to the Capital Region Board (CRB) on November 12th.

The CRB is comprised of 25 municipalities in the region, represented by the mayors of the municipalities. The CRB was charged with developing a Growth Plan for the Capital Region to address four components: land use, transit, housing, and GIS. The Plan was submitted in March, 2009, and established principles and policies to guide growth. The minister of Municipal Affairs subsequently charged the Board to do more work on specifics, and a Growth Plan Addendum was developed, October 2009 (available at http://www.capitalregionboard.ab.ca).

This Addendum includes such interesting topics as:
• Maps of priority growth areas, cluster country residential areas, and regional buffer areas
• Regional conservation buffer areas
• Criteria for locational planning
• Traditional design versus Conservation design

The Growth Plan Addendum made an excellent topic for part of our presentation, since EALT is interested in seeing alternative, more environmentally sensitive approaches to building, developing and growing. In fact, EALT supports a land use planning approach that includes keeping what we value, as well as putting infrastructure on the landscape. And we very much support the Conservation design principles advocated by the CRB.

We pointed out that while the Growth Plan Addendum acknowledges natural resources (or goods) provided by the environment, there was little discussion of the services the environment provides. Thus many natural areas and landscapes, beyond those which are environmentally sensitive, provide huge value to municipalities and their citizens.

We described how natural areas and rural landscapes convey tremendous benefits, which are economic, as well as social and environmental. This information was made available as a handout. The handout only summarizes the multiple benefits; the fact that there are a huge number of economic benefits from conservation, should have provided very good news to the Board members.

Those who wish further information about these topics, should contact EALT at (780) 483–7578.

Edmonton and Area Land Trust