A day in the life of a Junior Planner

8:30 am – Arrive at the office with a Tim Hortons coffee in hand. I sign myself in at reception, login to my computer, check my mailbox, check my voice and emails, and check how Mikka Kippusoff and the rest of my phenomenal hockey pool picks are doing.

9:00 am – What do I have in store for myself today? I check my calendar and discover that the only obligation I have is a two-hour site visit at 11:00 am somewhere in the wilds of Mississauga. In attendance at this meeting will be two other CVC staff members, several officials from various departments of the City of Mississauga, and the potential purchaser of the property we will visit as well as his agent. To pass the time until then, I finish drafting a few letters for municipal planning staff that contain our comments on some of the planning applications we have completed reviewing.

9:30 am – Good timing! After I finish my second letter I get a call from a private-sector planner who is the agent for one of the applications I just responded to. The agent is curious about the status of our review. I inform him about our concerns and explaint the contents of our letter. The agent is disturbed by this news, so I outline the relevant policies that further justify our position. Basically, the new home is located in an area of the property which could be susceptible to slope failure. CVC has concerns with the long term stability of valley slopes and the maintenance of valley integrity. We require that all development be located above top of bank or the stable slope line whichever is greater plus an appropriate setback. We need him to either relocate the new home so that it is outside the conservative estimate of the hazard or supply us with a report that studies the slope in this area in order to determine the actual extent of the hazard.

10:00 am – Still on the phone… (I think I need another coffee). I wrap up the conversation and fax over a copy of the letter containing our formal comments to the agent.

10:30 am – I round up the troops and we head over to the site for our 11:00 am meeting. On the way there we review what is being proposed (I’m getting hungry… and still need that coffee).

11:00 am – Impressive turnout! There are twelve people altogether. In part, this turnout is related to the fact that there are so many constraints on this site. We walk the property discussing each. From our perspective, since the property contains a watercourse which is actively eroding its banks, the regional storm flood plain, a steep valley slope adjacent to the existing dwelling, and a municipally designated natural area, significant studies are required in order to determine the extent of the various natural hazards located on site. Fortunately, the potential purchaser of the property and their agent anticipated this, so the meeting goes pretty smoothly.

1:30 pm – Upon returning to the office to drop off my colleagues, I exchange the CVC car for my own and head somewhere local for a quick bite to eat.

2:30 pm – I check my voice and email messages. Nothing is urgent so I’ll wait to respond to them at the end of the day. I check my mailbox. It appears that we have received a new application for a proposed addition to a home that is located entirely within the Regional Storm Floodplain. I gather relevant floodplain mapping and head to the file room to pull comments we made earlier in the year regarding this proposal. It looks like there could also be a slope concern so a site visit with one of our Engineers must also be conducted in the near future.

3:00 pm – After arranging this site visit with one of our Engineers, I check my to-do list to see what’s next on the agenda. I need to talk to some of my colleagues about a few applications I have in front of me for review.

3:30 pm – Still picking my fellow planner’s brains…

4:00 pm – The home stretch! I take some time to respond to the various phone calls I have received throughout the day. No one is picking up so I leave messages.

4:30 pm – Following these phone calls, I process a few property inquiries for law firms representing potential purchasers. This involves collecting relevant mapping, checking the file room for our comments on previous applications affecting the properties in question, and drafting up responses. Most of these properties are outside our regulated areas and contain no features of interest to CVC, so a letter stating no concerns is all that is needed. However, one requires a closer look. It is contained within a provincially and municipally designated natural area, it is traversed by a tributary of the Credit river and its associated Flood and Fill Regulated areas, it is adjacent to a valley slope, and it may contain the habitat of a rare or endangered species. In instances like this, a more detailed letter is required in order to discuss violations or outstanding orders on the property and to describe the constraints posed by such features on future development. Once I have completed a few of these I begin to pack up.

5:00 pm – Logoff, sign-out, and leave. I visit a nearby Tim Hortons to grab one for the road.

Some like it hot, others...not

Just like humans, there are some animals in the Credit watershed that don’t mind winter’s grip, while others would prefer the warmth of summer.

One of the animals not so fond of winter is a common one. Raccoons are not built for being winter marauders. Their fur is a poor insulator so colder temperatures usually find them bundling up inside tree cavities for warmth. The ability to find food is a major reason raccoons do nott venture out much. Raccoons prefer frogs and crayfish to munch on and these are often covered by thick snow and ice.

Cedar

Another species less inclined towards winter’s offerings is the white-tailed deer. Deep snow can make travel difficult for these thin-legged creatures and energy reserves get used quickly during times of heavy snows. Snow and ice can often hide many of the greens and buds that deer like to eat. Deer will spend much of their time around cedar trees in the winter. Cedars maintain their green and are a good source of winter food. The tree’s thick cover offers protection from deepening snow and winds. Often you can find evidence of deer beds and feeding grounds under cedar stands in the winter. Harsh winters can leave many deer weak and slow. For this reason, predation is more common in the winter.

There are some animals that may prefer the winter months to the summer ones. Pike for example have fewer competitors for food sources under the ice. Other fish such as bass will slow their eating habitats when the waters cool but pike maintain their appetite. As a top predator, pike do not suffer from competition too much but a shorter line at the buffet probably does not hurt. Rent an ice-hut at Island Lake and see what we mean.

Beavers may prefer the cover of ice and snow as long as they have planned properly. If they establish their winter food caches, they can travel from lodge to food with little to no fear of predators. This is why the beaver is so active in the fall, preparing for the winter under the snow and ice. The food cache will be of branches, trunks, and vegetation kept in an area out from the lodge. As long as they maintain an open waterway from lodge to food, the beaver never have to surface and risk predation

Snowshoe hare probably prefer the snowy months as they have two adaptations to help them outwit their many predators. Their name tells much of this story, as their paws shape and size allow them to stay on top of the snow more than their predators and gives the hares an advantage in mobility over animal enemies such as fox and coyotes. Snowshoe hare also change the colour of their fur in late fall to white and camouflage well with their wintery surroundings. An ermine (type of weasel) also has the same camouflage adaptation.

Whether you love the winter or can’t wait until spring’s blossoms, we all adapt to the seasons in different ways.

Under the naturalists' eye: Christmas for the birds

Cardinal in the snow

Many people look forward to the holiday season. Festive lights, decorated trees, and the smell of holiday baking are suddenly appearing in and around many homes. But while many of us look forward to holiday feasting and the exchange of presents, some of our feathered friends are finding this to be a tough time of year.

It can be very rewarding to share the spirit of the season with some of our wildlife neighbours by decorating trees and shrubs with edible ornaments. Not only can it be fun to create the ornaments, but the actions of sparrows, cardinals and chickadees as they “reap their bounty” can be quite entertaining. Many of the decorations are easy to create, and pretty inexpensive too.

Some ornament ideas…

1 Use cookie cutters on toasted bread to create festive shapes. These can be tied to the tree with colourful pieces of ribbon or stuck to the trees with sticks or twigs.
2 Slice and hang different pieces of fruit. Apples and oranges can be sliced into rounds and hung with wire ornament hangers or craft wire.
3 Wherever sections of orange have been scooped out of the rind, peanut butter or seed mixtures can be used to create a natural bird feeder. (Oranges last a long time outdoors and so are the best fruit for this purpose).
4 Pinecones can be rolled in peanut butter and then in wild birdseed. (Suet is an even better base – if you can get your hands on some!)
5 Sprays of millet are a favourite treat of many of our winter birds – including finches and mourning doves.

For garland…

6 Why not pop some popcorn and thread it along short pieces of craft wire or nylon fibre? (Unsalted please!)
7 Peanuts (shelled) or other nuts can also be threaded – or a combination of peanuts and popcorn can be used to make patterns.
8 Fruit can also be added to give some extra colour to the garland.

A couple of extra tips…

Try not to make the ornaments too bulky or the garlands too long. While some creatures will happily sit on the tree and peck away at your decorations, others are more secretive and will want to carry their loot back to their homes before they eat them. If the garland is too long, it can get caught on branches, or even around a bird’s feet or wings.

Squirrels can be quite nimble… so if you have a large squirrel population in your neighbourhood, but still want to feed some “feathered friends,” consider purchasing an elevated bird feeder with a catchment tray to limit seed fall.