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Drumheller to bloom without blooms this year

    Drumheller will not be entered in the Communities in Bloom (CiB) competition this year, co-chair of CiB, Trish Parker, recently announced, but will remain a Friend of Communities in Bloom.
    When CiB judges visited the area last year, the Drumheller valley received 4 blooms and a special mention for community involvement for overall performance in criteria that highlighted the community’s effort in environmental responsibility and beautification.
    Impressed by much about what Drumheller had to offer, the judges also found the area was missing many of the fine details to be awarded the top 5 blooms Drumheller received in 2006 and made recommendations on how to improve the grading.
    Parker told inSide Drumheller, “The CiB judges who visited us last year gave us some excellent recommendations and we are working on implementing their suggestions. We have decided to spend our efforts doing this instead of bringing the judges to town this year.”
    She added that the group was still working diligently on beautifying Drumheller “One Block at a Time” and that they had partnered with many stakeholders to beautify the entrance to Historic Downtown by the Atco Electric building.
    In July, the group is also organizing a Garden Tour in partnership with the Garden Club and the Badlands Community Garden Society.
    “CiB in Drumheller is only a small part of bringing this town to a world-class tourist destination. All parts of the community must get involved and work together to make this happen,” Parker concluded.
    Some of the recommendations pointed to a need for the Town of Drumheller to increase personnel to look after the green spaces.
    Al Kendrick, infrastructure services director told inSide Drumheller the town has addressed some of the problems mentioned in the judges’ report, adding they were not big enough to hire an expert from Olds College to dedicate time to tree and urban forest management but they hire contractors when needed.
    “I don’t think people realize the size of Drumheller. It is 125 square kilometers, and for what we have for staff, they do an absolutely excellent job of going around and keeping it in pretty reasonable condition in my opinion,” Kendrick said, adding the department was tied to a three-year budget.
    Councillor Sharel Shoff told inSide Drumheller she felt the town should be looking at the green space as beautifying Drumheller is important for the residents and also for visitors.
    “The budget is due in the fall but we are already talking about it a little bit now,” said Shoff.
    “I will check to see what the budget is and what we are spending it on and if there is any chance of having a little help.”
    In the meantime, Parker said that the CiB would welcome new members to join and help create an award winning community.

Retailers make efforts to reduce plastic bags

    A new agreement by grocery industry groups and the Province of Alberta is expected to see a drastic reduction of plastic grocery bags.
    Liked for their convenience, but loathed for the strain they put on landfills and the mess they create, the Alberta government and Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, Retail Council of Canada, Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, and the Canadian Association of Chain Drug Stores have reached a voluntary agreement to cut the number of plastic bags in circulation. They have set a target of seeing the 2008 number of bags cut in half by 2013.
    “Many Albertans are concerned with the number of plastic bags littering streets and entering landfills,” said Rob Renner, Minister of Environment. “This agreement with retailers is an important step in reducing plastic bag waste in every community.”
    Many retailers in Drumheller are already taking steps to curb the number of bags.
    Darryl Jacques, manager of Freson IGA said as much as the bags are a convenience, grocers are concerned with the waste generated by bags, and says more customers are choosing not to use them.
    “More people are conscious of it for sure,” said Jacques.
    Freson IGA, like many other retailers, have been selling reusable shopping bags. This could help the store’s bottom line by not having expense of supplying plastic bags for many orders.
    “There is an expense, it’s not that great, but when you look at it over the year, it does add up,” said Jacques. “At the same time, we are not trying to make money on reusable bags.”
    Dave Kosolofski, controller for Drumheller Co-op says they too are making an effort to promote reusable shopping bags.
    “On occasion we’ll do promotions where we give the reusable bags away with certain purchases to get them out there and people using them,” said Kosolofski.
    The store makes other efforts.
    “We try to minimize as many plastic bags as we can throughout the course of the day,” said Kosolofski. “We also accept the plastic bags back in our recycle centre, and we ship them back for recycling. So we do try to keep them out of the landfill by recycling them through our wholesaler.”
    He says plastic bags cost the store anywhere from 3-5 cents each, and while some retailers have begun to charge for bags, he says this is a route the Drumheller Co-op would not explore.
    Some industry best practices list include:
Reduce usage of new plastic bags
•    Train staff to put a sticker or tape on large items instead of bagging.
•    Offer consumers a choice to bring their own bag.
•    Train staff to maximize the efficient use of bags by increasing the number of items packed in each bag.
•    Train staff to ask consumers if they need a bag for smaller purchases.
Provide alternatives to plastic bags
•    Promote and offer for use/sale reusable cotton, net, or recycled plastic bags in lieu of providing free plastic bags.
•    Offer reusable bags for sale at cost, a deep discount or, in some instances, at no charge.
•    Offer reusable bin programs.
•    Offer recycled cardboard boxes as a carry-out option.
•    Offer compostable carry bags for sale or at point-of-sale.
Provide incentives to consumers to reuse or use alternatives
•    Provide consumers with incentives (i.e. rebate, loyalty points) to change behaviour and use fewer plastic bags or no bags at all.

Moose calf wriggles away

    A baby moose proved a little too wily for Fish and Wildlife officers and volunteers as they tried to wrangle a set of twins, orphaned in a car collision.
    On Wednesday evening, June 16, in a collision on Highway 10 near Rosedale, a cow moose was killed, leaving two very young moose to fend for themselves.
    Fish and Wildlife officer Bryce Jensen said when they saw the mother moose the next day they could see she was actively lactating to feed her young at the time of her demise. They also learned of a reported sighting of the youngsters as well as tracks.
    Knowing the young animals would not survive if left on their own, and knowing they had fresh tracks, Fish and Wildlife officers and volunteers gathered to try to capture the animals. One was on a piece of land owned by Clayton Schrock near the accident site.
    Late Friday afternoon the group assembled to attempt a rescue. They targeted one. While six of the volunteers held snow fence, the other eight went out pushing the bush to flush out the moose. They had the youngster in their net, but it managed to wriggle its way out.
    Jensen says they probably will not attempt to rescue the animals again unless there is a very good sighting. He explains that at their age there is a good chance they may not have survived the week.
    He did offer one glimpse of hope. While out spotting for the moose, they came across another cow in the bush. While it is inconclusive, he says it may be possible this second adult moose could have “adopted” one or both calves. He has seen this in deer populations where other female animals have taken over mothering orphans, and it may be possible this is the case with moose as well.

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