Learn about our Green Award.
Habitat Regeneration and Conservation
Habitat regeneration and conservation working group aims it's focus on helping our communities maintain and develop naturalized areas. As our neighborhoods grow this can put a strain on the local ecosystems. We work together to protect areas that are important and to develop new habitats and green spaces in order to help our wildlife thrive.
Waste Reduction
The Waste Reduction Working Group shares educational information and engages with individuals and businesses to foster circular economies and reduce single-use waste. Through our Green Award we have recognized a handful of prescott-Russell businesses for their waste-reduction efforts, and proudly operate the Earth Hub program across the counties at several locations where residents may drop off items to be reused and recycled which would otherwise go directly to landfill.
Climate and Energy
Our purpose is to encourage changes that will reduce energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions from Prescott-Russell. We are about 10 residents (or recent residents) of several municipalities in Prescott-Russell with enthusiasm and growing knowledge of the many paths to a low-carbon future. We believe renewable energy, energy efficiency and electrification will benefit our communities. We are energized and re-assured by our work together. We are retirees, students, entrepreneurs, farmers, and public servants. During 2021, the working group advocated for a climate action plan in Prescott-Russell. We distributed a petition and spoke to community leaders and media about the need for a local climate plan. We presented our request to each municipal council in the UCPR, and then to the County Council. We also organized a public discussion to imagine what fair and effective climate action might be at the international and local levels; results were provided to the Global Assembly on the climate and ecological crisis. Going forward, the group will continue to advocate for policies and products that save energy and reduce local emissions. We will celebrate initiatives that help people to adapt and thrive as our communities transition to a low carbon economy.
Industrial Pollution
We are focused on the potential health threat from long term exposure to air and water pollution from municipal landfills. This threat is not well understood in Canada and was brought to our attention by epidemiological studies undertaken in Great Britain and i in Europe. This is a carry on from our work on the Dump the Dump Now Campaign related to the Taggart Miller Landfill to be built on Boundary Road at Hwy 417. Municipal landfills are regulated by the Provincial government and air and water (surface and groundwater) pollution monitoring is only undertaken by the landfill owners. We have a geotechnical engineer and two biologists volunteering to study the spread of contaminants in mussels in the nearby ditches and creeks to create our own database to alert authorities. We plan to better map the distribution and species of mussels (clams and snails) in the Bear Book and Castor drainage systems before the dump is built to create a baseline database. We are looking for people to collect bags of clam shells and mystery snails and submit them to our volunteer biologists.