Suzanne Oel – Division 4
Greetings! Sharing my News Update…
The NW Foothills Recreation
Fundraising Campaign is On! Currently, the NWFR Board is raising funds toward a multi-sport field (goal of $150,000) and park amenities that include a natural playground and picnic shelter (goal of $100,000) in the Seaman Sports Park, located near the intersection of Highways 549 and 22. We hope the community enjoys this facility while working together towards the next phase of our Park! We invite you to become involved and join us as we begin planning and fundraising. Help us with your tax-deductible donation (receipts available for amounts over $100). Please complete our donation form and include it with your donation. The donation form is linked to our website page: www.nwfoothillsrec.com/
Photos of the park and diagrams of the proposed projects can be found here: www.facebook.com/NWFoothillsRec
BTW, our Seaman Sports Park features an excellent parking lot that could be more utilized by visitors and cyclists touring the area. Please help spread the word.
Community News: For many Division 4 community associations, Annual General Meeting season is upon us. I look forward to attending meetings and hearing about important topics on the community agendas; such as, FireSmart, emergency planning, repairs, insurance, recreation ideas, planning questions, and more. Foothills County also supports our community associations across the County with yearly clean-up grants and finances for Stampede Breakfast events or Canada Day events. Look forward to attending these events and want to thank all the volunteers who make this happen. Foothills staff also helps behind the scenes to prepare sites and help on event days. Thank you!
Priddis Municipal Reserve Discussions: Foothills County is working with Priddis residents to discuss ideas for the use and configuration of options within the Municipal Reserve in the north part of the Hamlet of Priddis. Look forward to interactions with residents and our Parks and Recreation staff to find a potential plan(s) that may appeal to Priddis and area residents.
Interesting Hail Research: During our Calgary Regional Airshed Zone 2025 AGM in June (one of my committees), we learned about a number of important topics related to air quality. On the agenda, we also heard from Dr. Julian Brimelow regarding the Northern Hail Project, happening right here in Alberta, with substantial data gathering occurring in our own backyard in the Foothills, Calgary and “Hail Alley” areas. Research on hail has not occurred here since the 1980’s when attention turned to tornado studies instead. Significant gaps in our understanding and knowledge of hail has led to this “renaissance in hail research” focus on our area, also due to the incredible financial losses experienced here in recent years from hail damage. Research measurement activities include hail events, hail sizes, hail properties, fall speeds, urban and rural hail damage surveys, hailstorm environment modeling, and hail hazard and vulnerability modeling. The project is slated for 2022 – 2028. Some stats are now being analyzed to determine if there are any trends or conclusions that could help with preparation or understanding the hail experience. Western University and their team will be working in Alberta for the next few years on this task. Outcome goals include increased resiliency to hail for all stakeholders, new building codes and more new scientists. You can find out more about their adventure and methods, here: www.uwo.ca/nhp/
Cloud Seeding Questions: Is cloud seeding science in scope in the Northern Hail Project? Apparently not, but it’s considered in the overall topic. There were interesting discussions about cloud seeding at the meeting, and in conversations I’ve had with residents. In my review of numerous articles and studies written about cloud seeding, questions come up about effectiveness of the practice, benefits, the need for conducting more comprehensive studies, the possible effect of more hail dumping elsewhere to protect certain areas, potentially stopping rain further east, and more.
Does the Foothills area receive more hail through the process of cloud seeding to protect other areas? Look forward to this and other questions being answer
For Other News & Updates:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CouncillorSuzanneOel/
Email: Suzanne.Oel@FoothillsCountyAB.ca
Visit High Country News online for my previous articles.
With Best Regards,
Suzanne
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