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6 stouffvme suntribune saturday aug 25 20o7 tstouflville suntnbune 6290 main sl stouffville0nl4alg7 wwwyorkregioncom publisher proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology johnfuthey director advertising york region printing distribution general manager barry black bob dean director circulation systems lynnpashko letters to the editor why no solution on elm road as a resident of elm road i would like to express my frustration at the continuing traffic problem on our street i realize the increased volume is a result of the new subdivision that has been built behind us i dont understand why traffic is allowed to travel at whatever speed is possible before it reaches a stop sign assuming the drivers bother to acknowledge the sign mix rumbling trucks screeching tires and no police presence and its a recipe for big trouble elm is a major route for children who walk to elementary school does the fact there are no sidewalks cause anyone concern most frustrating is that this issue was addressed a study was done public meetings held and three recommendations made as homeowners we were looking forward to finally being able to open our windows and back out of our driveways the decision was made to block off the street and put in temporary barriers at zero hour the fire department advised it was not a safe plan so the barriers werent installed what happened to the other alternatives is it going to take a tragedy to make a point if you feel this is just another noisy letter i invite you to send your little ones to school next month without a parent walking beside them for those of you who drop your kids off in the car i would suggest your speed leaving the school is going to kill someone elses child where are the people who were supposed to look after this issue my guess is they live somewhere else and it just doesnt matter stan sprung stouffville fines get developers attention re treeclearing by developer irks town residents aug 16 if we value our trees we need to take steps to protect them i am pleased council has expressed its anger with sheriff corporation for having cut down the trees and hedge row adjacent to the novopharm soccer fields however i wonder what can be accomplished by speaking to the developer isnt it too late to speak to the developer the trees are gone if we want developers to understand that preservation of our environment is important to this community we need to take real steps to protect trees whether it is a mature tree downtown a woodlot on the moraine or a hedgerow adjacent to a soccer field i do not believe speaking to developers or adopting a tree policy will get the job done what is required is a tree preservation bylaw with teeth in the form of substantial fines for- those who destroy trees without a permit halton region has a tree bylaw it charged a developer with 11 counts of destroying trees in contravention of it and the forestry act the court ordered the developer to replant the trees at a cost of 122000 and pay a 33000 fine i bet halton got the developers attention dean horner stouffville classification conservation efforts are you a lumper or a split ter well that depends on how you define a species and how we define species has direct implications on our abil ity to protect them this spring scientists celebrated the 300th birthday of swedish biologist carl linneaus one of the true giants of biology and the father of taxonomy the classification of living things before dr linneaus time species were described according to phrase names actual descriptions of plants or animals which could be entire sentences or even paragraphs long you can imagine how complicated and confusing such a system would be dr linneaus changed all that by naming and classifying the diversity of life on earth according to a hierarchical system of kingdoms classes orders and so on down to species and sometimes varieties although it has changed and expanded over the years modern biologists still use a similar system of classification dr linneaus would likely have approved of the additions as he himself was constantly updating and changing his own work based on new information two of the greatest changes to the study of taxonomy have been the discovery of evolution and the use of dna analysis to further refine our classification of species but with these new ways of understanding life come new challenges while dr linneaus thought all species were created by god exactly as they were and needed only to be discovered by man we now know that species evolve over time in fact given the right conditions and time a single species can actually branch off to become several entirely new species and with modern dna analysis we are able to determine the genetic distance between species for example we now know that chimpanzees are our closest living relatives but as was pointed out recently in a special edition of the journal david suzuki with faisal moola nature these classification issues pose real problems for conservation efforts at what point does variation within a species become significant enough that we have to accept we are dealing with more than one unique species right now there isno consistent standard in the scientific community butterfly taxonomists for example tend to lump their specialty together categorizing relatively few butterflies as unique species and instead choosing to differentiate them by subspecies ant taxonomists on the other hand tend to split their specialty into many different unique species and relatively few subspecies this inconsistency makes it more difficult to decide where to place our conservation priorities most conservation efforts are based on species lists canadas species at risk act sara for example and although sara has provisions to protect species subspeciesanddistinctpopulations there is little agreement among scientists where one of these ends and another begins depending on who studies a creature it could potentially be classified into any one of these groups yet in the real world being classified as a unique species means you will get more attention from the public and from conservation agencies for example one wellknown conservation plan is to focus on biodiversity hotspots those areas that have the greatest number of unique species but how were these species differentiated in the first place one way to avoid such problems is to take the conservation focus away from species arid instead look at things from an ecosystem level by protecting entire ecosystems you not only protect the species that are a part of it but also the services the ecosystem provides such as water filtration and climate protection however we proceed it is clear that looking at species alone is not sufficient to provide us with the information we need to decide conservation priorities and unless we have greater clarity its all too easy for discussions about conservation to break down into semantics and posturing and that does neither the species nor those trying to protect them any good at all take the nature challenge and learn more at wwwdavidsuzukiorg letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the suntribune 6290 main st stouffvme on l4a ig7 jmason6yrmgcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonymigcom itractve media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandreivsyrmgcom advertising retail manager stacey allen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellynngcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondcauitingcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom ontario press council p fosfl attnjllfli canadbn orcutxions ausst board member ccab editorial 9056402612 fax9056408778 advertising 9056402612 classified 18007433353 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