Fires, drought, lead to call for action
Resident asks council to create an environmental committee to suggest local moves
The ground is parched, the air is dirty, and the heat is deadly – welcome to climate change summer in Trent Hills.
On Friday, the Lower Trent Conservation Authority declared our region was suffering a minor drought situation since we have had so little rain since May.
“With stream flows across our watershed significantly lower than normal over the past two months and into August, Level 1 Low Water (minor drought) conditions are now being experienced across the Lower Trent Conservation watershed region,” it said in a news release.
There are two higher levels of drought and we may reach those yet since there is no rain in the forecast.
Lower Trent says we had almost the normal amount of rain in May, but only 38 per cent of normal since then.
“Monthly streamflow in the majority of our local creeks has dropped below the 70 per cent threshold compared to the lowest summer month average flows, which is a trigger for a Level 1 low water condition. Drought conditions may continue in the coming weeks, and conservation authority staff will continue to monitor precipitation and streamflow to determine if additional actions should be taken.”
At this point the authority is urging everyone to voluntarily reduce their water use by 10 per cent.
As I wrote last week, on Wednesday all municipalities in the county, including Trent Hills imposed a fire ban that included no camp fires or fireworks.
That left some folks — OK me — a bit puzzled when the Campbellford fair had its traditional fireworks display on Friday night.
“The fair is an annual event and the organizers asked if it was possible to have the fireworks,” Mayor Bob Crate said. “The fire chief made some adjustments like watering down the area and having a number of firefighters in attendance.”
He added that Fire Chief Shawn Jamieson discussed the fireworks issue with him and Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Phillips. Jamieson said the fire department would take extra precautions and soak the area to reduce the chance that sparks would cause a blaze.
In a timely related move, Campbellford resident Brenda Kotras has renewed her request that the municipality set up an environmental committee to consider what can be done locally to combat climate change.
“I am writing to ask that council appoint an environmental committee in our municipality to begin a discourse on the impacts of global warming in our municipality,” Kotras wrote to all councillors. “I expressed this same request in April 2025 and am motivated to write again while we experience a summer of repeated heat domes and drought.”
In April the clerk Karen Frigault responded to Kotras that this council has all its committees established and suggested Kotras try again after the election at the end of 2026.
“Northumberland County has an environmental officer and several municipalities in the county already have environmental committees,” Kotras wrote in her latest letter. “I join with millions of people in the world who want to take action to avert whatever consequences may be felt in our own municipality.”
Kotras outlined what she hoped such a committee could do. “The mandate for such a committee could be mostly to raise citizen awareness and capacity to meet whatever comes to our area. Hopefully, it would become a resource for council as climate issues move to the forefront of community issues.”
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I hate this weather and would do anything, within my power, to make it go away. But, in my opinion, to tag it as “climate change” is a bit adventurous. I have the upmost respect for anyone to put themselves and their ideas out there, but to suggest, especially on a municipal level, that we can somehow make a difference takes “adventurous” to a whole new level. Last winter, we experienced an above normal snowfall. But we wrote it off as an “old time winter.” I gently suggest we are in the throes of an old time summer. Other than complain, which I’ve been doing consistently, I think it’s time to suck-it-up-buttercup.