Daily
Bulletin

Warrior season tickets for sale Admission to some 60 Warrior sports events -- from the Labour Day football game to the Warrior Volleyball Classic -- is included in season tickets now on sale at UW's athletics department. Student admission is free to all games, but staff, faculty and off-campus folks will need a ticket. The price is $40 (teenagers $30, seniors $25). Single game tickets sell for $7, $4 and $2 respectively. The season ticket covers football, hockey, basketball and volleyball, including four major tournaments. Tickets can be ordered by mail or on-line from the athletics department. Telephone inquiries: ext. 5869.

Buskers bunk in the Village

And when the shows are over each night, they'll come home to UW's Ron Eydt Village, where the management will insist that they refrain from fire-eating, unicycling and chainsaw-juggling indoors. About 35 festival participants are expected in the Village, making up one of the last "conference" groups in these waning days of the spring term.

The busker performances are concentrated on King Street in Waterloo's business section, where things start with a free barbecue at 5:30 tonight and opening ceremonies at 6:30.

Busker acts will run from then until 11:00 tonight, from noon to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from noon to 4 on Sunday. A special "adult" show, heavy on the raunch, is scheduled for 11:30 Saturday night at the Parkade just off King Street.

The festival also offers a "Kidz Area" with children's activities, Friday through Sunday.

There's no admission charge, but spectators are expected to toss some cash into the hat after each act -- that's how buskers earn their living. The festival as a whole is sponsored by the city of Waterloo and a number of local businesses, and by donations at the "adult" show and at a vaudeville show at 4 p.m. Sunday that winds up the weekend.

Among the performers this weekend will be Alakazam ("shiny props, cyberpunk costumes, crazy hair and cheeky comedy meet at the top of a 12-foot pole"), the Cowguys ("circus, western and magic skills"), Davio the acrobat, Miss Fire, and Waterloo-based clowns Seams Like Magic.

Ideas for the north campus woodlot

The woodlot study was done by second-year students Allison Bullock, Renee Moran, Alice Ng, Sowel Kang, and Suzanne van der Leeuw for Environment and Resource Studies 250, the "WatGreen" course, during the spring term. The instructor for ERS 250 this time round was Susan Wismer.

Each term, students in the course do a number of studies of environmental and conservation issues on campus.

The woodlot is part of the "biology reserve" on UW's north campus. It had been pasture land for cattle over most of the past hundred years when it was acquired by UW in 1963, but was set aside for biology research and public recreation at the suggestion of biology professor John Morton, who has now retired. The area includes a garden with dozens of kinds of mint, and grasses and shrubs along the creek edge, as well as a deciduous forest area that grew up, restoring what had grown in the area before it was cleared for farming in the 19th century.

The area was left open to the public, with an entrance just behind the plant operations greenhouses, and a path was maintained roughly parallel to Laurel Creek. It became a popular place for people to walk their dogs. But earlier this year, when staff began to notice damage to trees and other plants, the woodlot was closed to the public. (The ERS students note that both a city of Waterloo bylaw and a UW policy about animals insist that dogs be kept leashed.)

"In the past two years," the students write, " use of the woodlot has increased significantly from general pedestrian traffic, dog owners, and bike riders. We predict the direct human impact on the woodlot is contributing to its degradation."

Exploring that hypothesis, they found that in some areas of the woodlot there is little ground cover and the trail is widening because the trail is not very distinct to recreational users. Although trail users are aware of the by-law, they added, they choose not to obey it.

They observe that the biology reserve "was initially established to restore the deciduous forest native to the area that had been degraded as a result of cattle grazing", making biological research possible. "Since 1980, when the woodlot was opened for public recreational use, the focus of the North Campus Biology reserve has slowly turned away from research, and can now be regarded as more of a recreational area."

They suggest that a buffer zone bordering the trail will "minimize" the impacts caused to the woodlot by recreational activities, and that dogs should be prohibited in certain areas; where they are permitted, they must be on a leash. They also call for public education programs to "enhance the value and public appreciation" of the natural area.

If a separate leash-free zone is not feasible, their report says, further improvements to land management must be considered, such as signs, education programs, enforcement of By-Law 91-101, specific times for dogs, volunteer groups to clean up after the dogs. And, they add, visitors should stick to the cleared path and be discouraged from following "alternate trails" which will just do more damage to the vegetation.

Pixels in the big picture

At 1:00 this afternoon, biology professor Colin Mayfield will speak about the innovative use of XML in teaching. Tom Carey of the LT3 learning centre, which is sponsoring Mayfield's talk, tells more: "The key advance Colin is working on will automatically generate information about the content of his online materials, technically 'metadata expressed as XML tags.' This innovation will greatly reduce the effort required for instructors to produce learning activities tailored to individual needs, and allow students to organize their own annotated versions of the course content with personalized structures. LT3 Faculty Dialogues are interactive discussions of current issues in learning and teaching through technology." Today's dialogue will be held in the "flex lab", Dana Porter Library room 329.

A brochure went across campus the other day from SOS Physiotherapy, based in the Student Life Centre, noting that it provides "thorough assessment", "manipulative therapy", "work and exercise hardening", injury treatment, massage and so on. "Our therapists are experienced professionals," an attached letter promises, "always keeping abreast of the newest developments and techniques." And people may have wondered how SOS is affected by the Ontario government's recent announcement that physiotherapy from some stand-alone clinics will no longer be paid for by Ontario Health Insurance. Answer: it's not affected, because SOS treatment was never paid for by OHIP in the first place. It's usually covered by private health insurance, such as the plans available to UW staff, faculty and students. The SOS clinic in the SLC can be reached at 884-0767.

Parking services manager Elaine Carpenter sends a reminder that fall term parking permits are for sale now at the parking office in the General Services Complex. And she notes that the office will be open from 9:00 to 3:00 on Labour Day, the day many students will be moving into residence.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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