Alternative to river valley solar power plant
Renewable energy is good, but Epcor’s plan to install 45,000 solar panels on 51 acres of land within the southwest river valley adjacent to Cameron Heights is not. Industrializing a piece of our ribbon of green for power generation directly contradicts City Council’s commitment to preservation and conservation of the river valley.
It is surprising that the company believes building a major impact utility service to generate electrical power in the river valley is a benefit to its shareholders – the citizens of Edmonton. Epcor wants to build this facility in Edmonton’s Ribbon of Green because it is the cheapest and most convenient place for them to build this electrical generating plant.
Is the Epcor solar power plant industrial development so essential to the wellbeing of Edmontonians that the intent and goals of the river valley bylaw must be violated? Are there no other locations in Edmonton and Area where solar panels could be situated? Options exist!
This week Edmonton International Airport announced a plan to develop a solar project on 627 acres. 340,000 solar panels will be installed, generating approximately 200,000 MWh per year, or enough to power between 27,000 and 28,000 homes. See more at https://globalnews.ca/news/7149686/edmonton-airport-solar-farm/
Ants – Benefits and Pest
Ants help aerate the soil. They dig tunnels that help to carry water, oxygen, and nutrients to plant roots. Ants are good pollinators, carrying pollen from bloom to bloom looking for sweet nectar. They naturally control garden pests by eating their young or interrupting their feeding cycle. Ants speed decomposition of organic matter such as leaves, straw and even other dead insects. This helps to fertilize plants.
Ants do not strip vegetation leaves unlike many other garden insects. No harm to vegetables is caused by ants. They are also good indicators of an aphid problem. Since aphids secrete sweet sugar, ants will naturally be attracted to them. You can easily spot ants in the garden when aphids are tiny and sometimes hard to spot.
Ant can be a problem and multiply in numbers rapidly. Since they are attracted to the sweet secretions of aphids, ants will protect aphids and allow them to multiply quickly. They will help to increase other garden pest populations such as the whitefly, scale, and the mealybug. All of these produce sweet secretions making them friends to the common garden ant. Learn more, including natural ways to get rid of ants, at https://www.hiddenspringshomestead.com/get-rid-of-ants-in-garden/
Spotted Sandpiper a river valley resident
Spotted Sandpipers can be found along the shores of our river valley’s river and ravine streams. They occur across North America, are distinctive in both looks and actions, and have intriguing social lives in which females take the lead and males raise the young.
The female Spotted Sandpiper is the one who establishes and defends the territory. She arrives at the breeding grounds earlier than the male. The male takes the primary role in parental care, incubating the eggs and taking care of the young. One female may lay eggs for up to four different males at a time.
Spotted Sandpipers eat mostly small invertebrates such as midges, mayflies, flies (particularly their aquatic larvae), grasshoppers, beetles, worms, snails, and small crustaceans. They also eat small fish. Spotted Sandpipers are active foragers, in addition to probing into sand or mud with their bills, they also lunge at moving prey, pick insects off plants, or snap at airborne prey. Read more at https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Spotted_Sandpiper/overview Share river valley event, job posting, or news
If you have a river valley event, job posting, or news that you would like to see published in this newsletter, please send the info to nsrivervalley@gmail.com
Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712
nsrivervalley@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/NSRVCS/
http://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/