Green Cottager Awards of Merit

Individual/Family

Doug Ingram, Go Home Lake, Ont.

Ingram designed and built an attractive woodshed from a recycled fence. His simple project kept materials out of landfill and saved at least one tree in the process. The design keeps wood dry so it burns more cleanly in Ingram’s high-efficiency woodstove. His neighbour admired the shed so much, he used Ingram’s leftover fence boards to make one of his own.

Individual/Family

Petra Hartwig, Rice Lake, Ont.

Hartwig bought a small cottage and, with a number of retrofits and “leave it as is” decisions, has created a truly nature-friendly refuge. She installed a water-saving shower, composting toilet, skylights, and compact fluorescents. Cedar trees around the cottage provide welcome shade and a peaceful place for the birds and bats Hartwig loves to observe.

Cottager Group

Bella-Rebecca Community Association, Dwight, Ont.

Founded in 1979 to successfully protest the building of a 3,000-acre luxury resort (the land is now a wildlife preserve), the Bella-Rebecca Community Association recently instituted an annual awards program for property owners who strive to meet seven environmental objectives, including monitoring and preserving fish and wildlife and maintaining natural landscapes on Bella and Rebecca lakes. The group completed a lake plan in 2005, available on its website, www.brca.on.ca.

Cottager Group

Baptiste Lake Plan Committee/Baptiste Lake Association, Bancroft, Ont.

Concerned about rapidly accelerating development in the area, the Baptiste Lake Association (BLA) decided in 2005 that it was time to identify what needed to be preserved in the midst of inevitable change. Through a stakeholder survey, workshops, and reports on everything from current water quality to species at risk, the BLA is aiming to provide a “good practices” lake-stewardship plan that will inspire residents, businesses, and the local municipality to actively protect what they value about the lake.

 

- by Moira Farr

- Photography Ruth Kaplan

 

Related links:

2009 Green Cottager Awards information

2007 Green Cottager Award recipients

 

Published in the May 2008 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Copyright © 2008 by Cottage Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork, for other than personal use, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.