County celebrates Earth Day with Sustainability Hub; tree giveaway, trash bash
Administrator | Apr 21, 2022 | Comments 5
County residents are celebrating Earth Day this weekend with hundreds of people signed up to participate in the first Owen Jones Memorial Clean Up Day, (formerly Trash Bash) on Saturday. Picton Home Hardware is also hosting an electronics drop-off and residents can also drop household waste at 75 County Road 1 (Sandy Hook Road.
The municipality is also celebrating Earth Day with a series of community events focused on the environment and sustainability.
Between April 22-30, the public is invited to participate in a tree seedling giveaway, a community clean-up, and an invasive species mapping project, as well as demonstrations and expert talks.
Details are available on the new Sustainability Hub on the County’s website. The hub includes information about the municipality’s response to the climate emergency, as well as resources from partners and the broader community.
Residents are invited to explore the website to learn about topics such as identifying and managing invasive species, grants and funding sources for residents and businesses, and a directory of community groups working in the region. The site also includes information on municipal projects related to the environment and sustainability.
Earth Day activities:
Friday, April 22 from 1-2 p.m. – Sustainable Planting at Home – Join The County Museums at Macaulay Heritage Park for an expert chat with Ben O’Brien from Wild by Design, Bay Woodyard from Honeypie Hives and Herbals and Albert Paschkowiak, Supervisor of Environmental Services and Sustainability.
The talk will introduce practical methods for planting, what species work best in this area, and how these choices can support the pollinator population. The event is free of charge and open to all. Registration is not required. Macaulay Heritage Park is located at 23 Church St., Picton.
Saturday, April 23 – Owen Jones Memorial Clean-Up Day – Residents are encouraged to collect litter in the community and deliver without charge to bins located at the following four locations:
· Midtown Brewing Parking Lot – 266 Wellington Main St, Wellington
· Picton Home Hardware – 13544 Loyalist Pkwy, Picton
· Roblin Lake – 13 Coleman Street, Ameliasburgh
· Milford Town Hall – 3076 County Rd 10, Milford
Participants are encouraged to register to reduce duplication of clean-up efforts. Participants can pick up bags and gloves at Picton Home Hardware and Wellington Home Hardware.
Saturday, April 30, 8 am – 2 pm – Community Trees Event – Delhi Park, Lalor Street Picton (near the community gardens), and Wellington and District Community Centre, 111 Belleville Street (at the rear of arena)
In partnership with Quinte Conservation Authority, the municipality is giving away tree seedlings to homeowners to improve tree cover throughout the County. Residents will be required to provide their name, address and contact information to participate and will be asked to monitor and maintain the tree and provide updates to municipal staff if the health of the trees deteriorates.
Homeowners who have experienced tree loss due to the emerald ash borer are particularly encouraged to participate. Trees are available on a first-come, first-served basis with a limit of two trees per household. Species include White Pine, Red Pine, White Spruce, White Cedar, Red Oak, White Oak, Sugar Maple, and Black Cherry.
The event will also include a brief discussion on naturalization/native plants by Quinte Conservation and a tree planting demonstration to be hosted at approximately 10:30 a.m at Delhi Park. This initiative is part of the recently approved Adopt-a-Tree program.
Invasive species mapping:
The municipality is collecting data on where invasive species can be found in Prince Edward County.
Through an interactive mapping tool on Have Your Say, residents can report the presence of invasive plants and insects such as the spongy moth (formerly known as European Gypsy moth), emerald ash borer and wild parsnip.
The data collected through the mapping project will help the municipality understand the distribution of these species within the County. This will help to form a response and assist the work of partners in developing regional mitigation efforts. The map will be open for public input throughout 2022.
Click here to visit the municipal Sustainability Hub
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About the Author:
A small Owen Jones Memorial Clean Up Day concern. I do not know about the containers located elsewhere in the County, but the one we deposited road waste in is chock-a-block loaded with construction waste and other garbage that did not come from the roadsides. That is to avoid waste disposal charges at the County dumps. Come on neighbors. If you can afford a new abode, or remodeling, you can afford to pay to dispose of the waste.
I have no doubt that some ( a very small amount) of roadside litter comes from it blowing off the recycling truck – the vast majority of it comes from people not caring enough about their environment and throwing it out of their window or dumping it.
So once again, I thank those who took the time to clean up this past weekend.
I appreciate the volunteers but let us not blame people so quickly for throwing out garbage from cars, ever see recycling bins so full on pickup days in the wind or recycle trucks overloaded with trash blowing all over the place ?
I would like to thank those responsible for cleaning up Fish Lake Rd. – they did a wonderful job! I couldn’t believe the number of garbage bags, and containers filled with trash that people threw from their cars. Thank you for all the hard work – I very much appreciate it.
Will the bins be available all week? If not, we have to make a special trip into Picton to drop off the trash – a 50 km round trip. This isn’t good for the environment or our wallets. Why can’t you have a bin (and bags) at N. Marysburg Hall?