Haliburton Rotary has relaunched its bike share program in Haliburton village for another season.

The bikes are free to use by anyone 18 and older and can be unlocked with a smart phone and credit card.

Volunteer Irv Handler noted cards will only be charged if bikes are lost, stolen or damaged.

There are six bikes available to rent for up to three hours, located in Head Lake Park in front of the bicycle caboose, which has also recently reopened.

The bikes can be signed out during daylight hours, currently between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The program will remain in place through to Thanksgiving.

Handler said this year the bike share is running as part of the Haliburton County Community Cooperative.

Bicycle caboose volunteer Pamela Marsales said the space is open on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. She said a program schedule, including activities for youth, will be released soon

SIRCH hosted its annual rally for rhubarb last week in Haliburton in support of the non-profit’s community kitchen programs.

County residents who may have had extra rhubarb growing in their gardens were asked to consider donating it to SIRCH during this year’s collection days.

While technically a vegetable, SIRCH said the donated rhubarb “will be transformed into homemade fruit servings and comforting desserts through SIRCH’s community kitchen program, helping provide thousands of nutritious meals to seniors, families, and individuals experiencing food insecurity across Haliburton County.”

A number of years ago, Susan Tromanhauser came across a website called Humans of New York (HONY).

HONY is a massively popular photoblog and storytelling platform created by photographer Brandon Stanton in 2010. What started as an attempt to photograph 10,000 random New Yorkers has evolved into a global phenomenon, featuring intimate portraits and deeply personal anecdotes from everyday people across the globe.

Tromanhauser loved how each post featured not only a candid street portrait, but quotes or short stories from the subjects, ranging from humorous and quirky to profoundly heartbreaking and inspiring.

“I thought it was fascinating because it was regular people telling their stories and everybody had a different story,” Tromanhauser told The Highlander in a recent interview.

The former freelance writer for regional magazines in the Niagara Region, who made the County her full-time home during COVID, thought, “I could do this here.”

She then began pondering where the stories might be published and sent an email to The Highlander, to see if the paper was interested in running a Humans of Haliburton Highlands column. It was. Fast forward to 2026, and Tromanhauser recently published a collection of those columns in book form. She will be launching it at Corner Gallery, at 123 Maple Ave., Haliburton on June 6.

She said another motivator for launching the column was that even though she had been coming to the family cottage in Algonquin Highlands for 30 years, she didn’t know a lot of locals.

“Saying that I have a column gave me permission to go up to people and ask them questions,” she quipped.

“Because everybody I meet does have a story.”

Tromanhauser is out and about and not afraid to approach complete strangers at events. She’ll strike up a conversation. When she gets a response, she’ll mention her column and ask if the person wouldn’t mind being interviewed. She said that 80 per cent of the time, the subject says ‘yes’, although inevitably “everybody says ‘I don’t have anything to say. I don’t have a story’.” However, they usually do. She has some standard questions, such as where people are from, and how they came to be in the Highlands, why they stay, anything they miss about elsewhere. “Somewhere in those questions, it goes in a different direction.”

She said writing the column gives her a sense of accomplishment. So has publishing her first-ever book. “Because I do like to write, and I like to have a purpose to write. So, it gives me a purpose and it gives me a deadline.”

She is also conscious of her subjects, saying, “I’m hoping when they read it in the paper, they feel a sense of accomplishment in what they’ve done. Because sometimes people are too busy living their lives, they don’t see it.”

She recalls how her love of writing came in Grade 2 when the students were introduced to new words. They were shown a photo and had to write a story using those words. Tromanhauser loved it. “I could not wait… since then, I’ve always wanted to write a book.”

She also takes part in a writers’ group organized by Sue Reynolds of Stone’s Throw Publications. Lots of authors were talking about publishing and she thought, “if they can do it, why not me?”

The launch will be from 1-3 p.m. There will be a Q and A with Tromanhauser followed by mingling and snacks.

Two Haliburton men – who illegally used an excavator last summer to remove woody debris and aquatic vegetation along the Lipsy Lake shoreline – have been convicted and fined for unlawful use of machinery on lake shore lands.

The Ministry of Natural Resources said on May 22 that the men were fined $2,000 each after pleading guilty to unlawfully dredging shore lands without a permit.

The Ontario Court of Justice heard that on Aug. 11, 2025, the men were operating an excavator on the shore of Lipsy Lake, in Dysart et al, north of Haliburton.

“While attempting to remove woody debris and aquatic vegetation along the shoreline, the excavator was driven into the waters of Lipsy Lake,” the MNR said.

They added the lakebed was scraped and dredged using the heavy machinery, without the men having obtained a permit.

“Witnesses observed the excavator in the water and immediately reported the incident to the ministry TIPS line. The ministry’s district staff responded to the incident, completing a damage assessment before handing the investigation over to conservation officers,” the ministry said last Friday.

Justice of the Peace, Joel Kulmatycki, heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, City of Kawartha Lakes, Feb. 24.

Incident used for public education

There was no remediation order associated with the conviction.

As the incident happened in Dysart et al, chief building official Karl Korpela said their bylaw enforcement officer conducted a joint investigation with the MNR and, “it was determined that this was outside of our jurisdiction as all of the work was completed below the high-water mark.”

Haliburton County master gardener Carolyn Langdon told The Highlander that two weeks ago, she was able to stop a person in mid-destruction from doing a similar thing. She said she convinced the man to return the shoreline elder bushes and soil from the lake back to approximately where it was.

Check before you remove

With the recent conviction and fine, and Langdon’s experience, U-Links program coordinator Frank Figuli said it’s a good reminder for full-time and seasonal residents about the do’s and don’ts of shoreline health.

“From an ecological standpoint, shoreline and near shore areas are some of the most sensitive and productive habitats within an aquatic system. People typically perceive aquatic vegetation and woody debris as a nuisance or a hinderance to enjoying the lake. But they truly do provide important ecological functions like fish habitats, shoreline stabilization, erosion resistance, nutrient cycling, and just overall benefits to water quality protection.”

Figuli said they have done an aquatic plant inventory of Lipsy Lake, indicating an absence of invasive plant species.

He said using heavy equipment, such as an excavator, in a lake below the high-water mark can result in sediment disturbances, possible destruction of habitat, lead to shoreline destabilization – and can impact other properties and the larger lake ecosystem.

He said people should use their lake associations as a resource.

“Cooperation with lake associations should be front of mind, particularly because they are working with organizations such as the Haliburton County Master Gardeners, U-Links, Abbey Gardens, etc. You can get more informed decision-making potential by checking in versus just going off on your own.”

The Highlander asked the MNR how one obtains a permit, and how it ensures work is done properly. We did not have a response as of press time.

To report a natural resource problem, or provide information about an unsolved case, members of the public can call the ministry TIPS line toll free at 1-877-847-7667. You can also call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800222-TIPS. For more information about unsolved cases, visit ontario.ca/MNRTips.

By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Nearly 400 community and social workers in Peterborough, Lindsay, and Haliburton walked off the job on Monday (May 25), and joined a coordinated province-wide strike of 4,500 public sector employees.

Members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 358 are striking against Community Living Trent Highlands. The workers are demanding a 6.5 per cent retroactive wage increase and a strict “no layoffs” guarantee following the repeal of Ontario’s unconstitutional Bill 124, which capped public sector wage increases at one per cent.

Direct provincial ministry staff received financial remedies after the wagecap legislation was struck down, but community-based public service sectors were excluded.

“Because the cost of living keeps going up, the time is now,” local union president Jessica Bushey told The Highlander.

The Local 358 president said that even top-earning, long-term staff who have specialized degrees are having to take on secondary jobs or use food banks to make ends meet.

“We have members going to the food bank to not only pick up stuff for the folks we support because they can’t afford it either, but neither can we,” Bushey said. “There’s something wrong here, right?”

The union boss noted that, according to the financial accountability officer, her sector faces an ongoing $1.5 billion provincial funding shortfall. Bushey said workers report that the underfunding directly impacts vulnerable residents, adding that some supported individuals are left with food budgets of just $14 a day.

In a statement to The Highlander, the provincial government said it has “made historic investments in the development services sector, including nearly $4 billion this year, an increase of $1.6 billion since we took office in 2018 to provide people with access to the services they need, when they need them.

“While collective bargaining is a matter between the employer and the union, we expect every service provider to have strong contingency plans to protect residents and ensure their care is never disrupted,” a spokesperson said.

The labour dispute faced a critical deadline this week, when Community Living Trent Highlands forced a final offer vote through the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Local union leadership fiercely urged members to vote down the proposal.

“They’re trying to get us off the strike line, but their deal comes with layoffs,” Bushey said. “We shouldn’t have to fund a wage increase with the blood of our own members.”

Bushey said she’s concerned about the health and safety of the vulnerable people the workers care for during the job action, noting that the specialized care is being handled by temporary workers.

OPSEU launched a family landing page on its website to support affected households, and the results of the OLRB vote will be posted on the local’s public Facebook page.

Haliburton Forest Biochar management is still assessing damages after an early morning fire at its Kennaway Road facility May 22 took out one of the business’ production buildings.

Malcolm Cockwell, managing director of Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve – the parent company of Biochar, told The Highlander the blaze broke out around 1:30 a.m. No injuries were reported.

“Efforts to secure the site and investigate the incident are ongoing. The extent to which the incident will disrupt Haliburton Forest Biochar’s operations is yet to be determined,” Cockwell said.

Introduced in 2016, the division uses leftover wood chips, shavings and powder from the Forest’s sawmill operations to produce biochar – a highly-porous charcoallike substance primarily used to improve soil health and capture carbon. Acting like a sponge, biochar helps soils retain water and store nutrients.

It’s also used in manufacturing, replacing fossil fuel products like carbon black and coal coke during the production of bioplastics, green metals and other materials.

Stacey Parish, deputy fire chief with the Dysart department, said the fire call came into the station at 1:35 a.m., with first responders arriving at 1:55 a.m. She said 22 firefighters from three departments – Dysart, Algonquin Highlands and Highlands East – tackled the blaze, with officials on-scene for 11 hours.

While the fire was reported to the Ontario Fire Marshal, Parish said there’s no concern for public safety.

“Nothing to be concerned about as it is a natural product,” Parish said.

Jim Demetriou from the fire marshal’s office said an investigation is underway.

“At this time, the incident remains under active investigation and there is no information available to share. The Office of the Fire Marshal is unable to provide further comment while the investigation is ongoing,” Demetriou said.

Cockwell confirmed clean-up is underway. The fire is the first major incident at the site since Haliburton Forest invested $10 million to expand the division in 2022. The Ontario government pitched in an additional $4.6 million last year to support a transition into engineered biochar, opening the door for more growth in advanced manufacturing.