Big Lake was the focus of international attention this week when a squad of biologists dropped by for a visit.
About 30 conservation biologists from India, Europe, Alaska and other regions visited Big Lake early Wednesday morning as part of a tour organized by the Society for Conservation Biology. The group held its annual international conference in Edmonton this week.
This area is perfect for bird watching in the spring, said Dan Stoker, one of several local ecologists recruited as tour guides. “Tundra swans can be here in the tens of thousands,” he told the biologists, who appeared to be far too busy bird watching to pay him any attention.
Big Lake was a great place to see a lot of species in a short time, Stoker said. Biologists thrilled that morning at the sight of a yellow-headed blackbird and appeared engrossed by an American avocet.
St. Albert residents are lucky to have a place like this so close to them, said Stephen Garnett, a biologist from Darwin, Australia on the tour. “Wetlands all over the world are being degraded and lost,” he said, which has made some shorebirds far less common in Australia.
One of the key messages coming out of the conservation biology conference was the importance of community involvement, he said. “You have to get the community owning the conservation. It can’t just be the scientists saying it’s a good thing.” The development of Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park would be a great help in that regard, he added.
The conference wrapped up Wednesday.
Alberta should raise its energy efficiency standards to make homes more affordable, a new study suggests.
The Consumers Council of Canada and the North American Insulation Manufacturers’ Association (NAIMA) Canada released a study Thursday looking at the effects of energy efficiency on home price.
The federal EnerGuide system gives homes a score based on energy use. A rank-zero home is an energy hog, for example, while a rank-100 home wastes almost no energy.
Alberta homes have an average EnerGuide rating of 70, said Stephen Koch of NAIMA. The federal government plans to change building codes in 2012 so that new homes have to achieve a rating of at least 80. That’s a big jump, and homebuilders have argued that it would make homes too expensive.
Using data from Statistics Canada and computer models, the study found that an average Edmonton or Calgary home could be upgraded to an 80 rating for about $6,000, or about $35 a month added to a typical mortgage payment. Over 25 years, that home’s owner would save $35 to $65 a month in energy, more than making up for the cost.
Alberta’s building code is decades old and needs to be brought up to today’s standards, Koch said. Raising Alberta’s standards now would not only make homes more affordable, but also give builders time to learn how to meet the upcoming federal standards. Ontario, B.C., and Manitoba have all made similar hikes to their codes in recent years, and found that the cost to upgrade homes actually shrank over time.
Higher building codes would reduce Alberta’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, said John Rilett of Climate Change Central, and add only a little to a home’s up-front cost. The province is offering a $10,000 credit to anyone who buys an EnerGuide 86 home to compensate.
Retailers are also starting to pay more attention to energy efficiency, he continued. Calgary real estate agents agreed this week to add EnerGuide ratings to their Multiple Listing Service.
The study can be found at www.consumerscouncil.com.
