Simon Tonekham’s Blog

Hey guys,

Simon here again for another blog posting. Last night, I finally got my opportunity to see Angels and Airwaves at the Kool haus in Toronto. It was an awesome great time and I was filled with joy on that night. My sister went with me as well and I also got my opportunity to see my facebook friends who were at the concert as well. Chris B., Kevin T., James B., just to name a few. My sitser also hanged out with two Yankee friends from New York State who were at the concert that night (My friend Chris B. also came from New York State) and we had a very great time. I managed to took a few pictures of Angels and Airwaves along with the other supporting acts such as The Color Fred and Ace Enders. The Color Fred by the way, is Fred Mascherino’s own project since he left the band called Taking Back Sunday. I really like his music to some extent, but I mainly concentrate on Angels and Airwaves. Despite this, I had an awesome great time.

Changing gears, I was reading an article on the Globe and Mail today about the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) had imposed a city wide quarantine limitng the movement of ash tree materials to prevent the further spread of the Emerald ash borer beetle. There were some mixed views aboutit. Mayor David Miller quote, “The federal government’s action in forcing cities to pay for control of this pest I find unacceptable,”

CFIA officials note that the quarantine complies with U.S.-style standards - county-wide controls, in which in the case Toronto ends up being a municipal border.

“It’s a federal interest in ensuring that [the ash borer] doesn’t go across the country. It’s their treaty that they’ve signed, it’s exactly the kind of place where they could be supporting cities,”

However, Mr. Miller states that he is well supported on the battle against the beetle. “We will do what is asked, we didn’t need an order,We’re active, we value our trees, and we’re very, very worried about it.”

There should be also some signs notifying motorists that they are entering a regulated area. They cannot take out the materials or they will face a stiff penality or prosecution. That’s what my opinion states.

A city forester also states that removing the ash trees either the tree is infested with the beetle or not will cost upwards of $40 Million CDN. A mature tree would also cost $2,000 CDN each to remove. My concern now is that the beetle will soon cross the Durham Region and if Regional Council doesn’t have a plan in place to combat this particular beetle, then the results will be enormous. Note to Roger Anderson: build a plan on combating the beetle, now.

I’ll try to find road signs indicating that you are leaving/entering the quarantine zone if I have a chance.

References:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080223.BEETLE23/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/

http://www.insidetoronto.ca/News/NorthYork/article/42228

http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/full_story.asp?StoryNumber=30389

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pestrava/agrpla/agrplae.shtml 

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pestrava/agrpla/survenqe.shtml 

I was reading an article of the Toronto Star today and I was shocked that the Emerald Ash Borer (a green beetle that destroys ash trees) has recently arrived in the City of Toronto. The beetle was first spotted in the Sheppard and Highway 404 area in North York, in ash trees in the area. This wasn’t the first time that the destructive pest arrived in North America. The beetle first arrived in North American in the 1990s in wood packing materials. There are many infestations in Michigan state (where the beetle first detected) and it has spread to cities of London (Ontario) and Windsor along with the counties Chatham-Kent, Essex, Lambton, Elgin and Norfolk.

This is what the beetle looks like (source: CFIA):

more pictures of the EAB can be founded here: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pestrava/agrpla/photoe.shtml 

Right now, the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) is setting up a quarantine to stop the spread of the beetle. It’ll be a while when the Emerald Ash Borer (and the Asian Longhorned Beetle) will arrive on my doorsteps anytime soon….in other related news, I decided to post a parody of a song by Marianas Trench called “Push”, but this time it’s a parody about the Emerald Ash Borer. You can read the lyrics that I made below this post.

References:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/newcom/2007/20071204e.shtml

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/282715

http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/News/NorthYork/article/33818

“Push” parody - “The Emerald Ash Borer song”

You never really wanted it
They’ll settle for a bit of it
They started with a big bang,
(chewing with their special fangs)
And now it’s coming to eat them

Chorus:
Hey, don’t you see them free?
They’re chewing those ash trees
Hey, killing them with glee
And they’re getting sick,
And they’re feeling it

It’ll kill them dead and lead a tread,
Chasing them from tree to tree and tree to tree,
They’ll kill them up against the roots, against the roots
We must prevent the entire spread of the emerald ash borer,
Now

They came from far as Asia,
loaded with a payload,
But not just ash trees,
not only those ash trees,
They even hide in firewood.
Using easy to hard tactics,
they can spread from state to state,
even to the provinces
of the whole Great White North.

Chorus:
Hey, don’t you see them free?
They’re chewing those ash trees
Hey, killing them with glee
And they’re getting sick,

And they’ll kill it up
It’ll kill them dead and lead a tread,
Chasing them from tree to tree and tree to tree,
They’ll kill them up against the roots, against the roots
We must prevent the entire spread of the emerald ash borer,
Now

We must educate,
To prevent the small green bug,
Or it soon wipe out,
maxing the good ash trees out.

It’ll kill them dead and lead a tread,
(We must educate)
Chasing them from tree to tree and tree to tree,
(To prevent the small green bug)
They’ll kill them up against the roots, against the roots
(Or it soon wipe out,)
We must prevent the entire spread of the emerald ash borer,
(maxing the good ash trees out.)

(maxing the good ash trees out.)
They’ll kill them up against the roots, against the roots
(or it soon wipe out)
We must prevent the entire spread of those bugs now,
(maxing the good ash trees out.)

Chorus:
And they’ll kill it up
It’ll kill them dead and lead a tread,
Chasing them from tree to tree and tree to tree,
They’ll kill them up against the roots, against the roots
We must prevent the entire spread of the emerald ash borer,
Now

do-do-do-do-do-do-do,
do-do-do-do-do-do-do

do-do-do-do-do-do-do
do-do-do-do-do-do-do,

do-do-do-do-do-do-do
do-do-do-do-do-do-do
do-do-do-do-do-do-do.

do-do-do-do-do-do-do….