By Layla Baird

Communities in Bloom seems to be coming together quite nicely for Gull Lake, especially after getting a head start with a successful Earth Day that saw many students helping to clean up the town by picking up garbage. Residents and businesses have already started work on beautifying the community, with many businesses planning flowerbeds, new paint, and more, and a number of residents cleaning up last year’s debris and preparing their gardens.

With so many getting into the spirit, it is no surprise that Ed Lowenberger, the chair of the Communities in Bloom project in Gull Lake, has only positive things to say when asked how the project is coming along.

“So far, so good. we have received all of our outdoor furniture and it was all assembled by myself and two volunteers, Les Potter and Ron Broberg,” Lowenberger said. “ [The furniture] will be deployed sometime this week.”

Lowenberger added that the community gardens are moving along and things are starting to come together. There will also be some friendly competition to entice businesses and residents of Gull Lake to get involved with the project.

“A business flower pot competition is being put together and hopefully soon there will be nice flowers located in the downtown core,” Lowenberger said. “We are also having a residential block competition open to any and all. If any individuals or clubs wants to be involved with this, just contact the town office and let them know.”

While it would be nice to earn three or four blooms when the judges come through sometime in July or August, Lowenberger wanted to stress that this is about more than the blooms. The project is about bringing a community together, and to bring out the best in Gull Lake, its businesses and residents.

“The main goal is to beautify the overall appearance of our community, to instill a sense of pride to all residents and to build a dedicated volunteer base.”

The Gull Lake Communities in Bloom Kickoff was held on April 27 with a pancake breakfast and guest speaker Nola Sanderson from Maple Creek, who shared some information on Maple Creek’s success in the Communities in Bloom project.

Lowenberger added that preparation of flowerbeds around town is well under way, thanks to volunteers who are busy getting these into shape. Lowenberger asks that anyone who would like to get involved should contact the town office as soon as possible at 306-672-3361.

By Craig Baird

 Combine an interest in planetary colonization, the potential for cataclysmic events and a need for future habitation outside the planet and you have an award-winning science project that is taking local Hazlet student Nathan Benson to the National Science Fair in Lethbridge on May 11.

Benson’s project, titled Long-Term Effects of Hyper Gravity on Plant Growth, came as a spur of the moment decision for the student.

“It was just one of those things. You think of it one day and you think it would be pretty cool and it ended up that I told enough people and I got enough interest and enough people helped me with some things,” Benson said. “Nothing exactly sparked my interest in it, it was just spur of the moment.”

The idea may have been spur of the moment, but the planning was a long process.

“I got the idea in mid-September. We started building in the beginning of November and we just finished getting everything assembled and put together out on the site on March 12,” Benson said.

The project site, located on Bruce Anderson’s farm, provided the ideal place for Benson to conduct his experiment.

“Without the area he gave to me, I would have not had the space to do the project,” Benson said. “With the size of it, it required a long-term commitment and a space that was big enough to hold everything I needed.”

With the land at his disposal, he needed a device to test hyper-gravity on plant growth. This involved a lot of help from those around him as well.

“One of the main things was trying to organize everyone’s schedule to get everything running smoothly. It involved a lot of work and me working with a lot of different people,” Benson said.

With help from South West Terminals, Starquest Farms, Caswell Farms, Neil Anderson, Rodney Anderson, Dawg House Woodworks, his father and Larry Caswell, he was able to construct the device.

In all, the radial arms of the centrifuge spanned 20 feet, with a width of two feet. The centrifuge frame itself sat on a rotating shaft built from a repurposed car axle. The ladder frame of the centrifuge was built three-inch steel channels and the plant boxes measured two-feet long, two-feet wide and two-and-a-half feet deep, consisting of six boxes in total. The boxes were then hung on the centrifuge arms using a pinning system that allowed them to rotate and self-align themselves. Powered by a five-horsepower motor, assisted by a hydraulic pump system, it rotated at a velocity of 30 revolutions per minute. Grow lights were also installed in the underground enclosure to provide 360 degree illumination for the plants.

The centrifuge ran for two to three months straight, except for daily stops for short periods of time for Benson to make observations.

Benson grew four consumption-based crops (radishes, beans, dill and hard red spring wheat) at two different g-forces (2 g and 3 g), along with a control group at 1 g of force.

All that work paid off for Benson, who took first place in the Senior Category, as well first overall for the region. Benson also picked up an environmental award.

This will be Benson’s second trip to Nationals. He previously went to Nationals last year when they were held in Charlottetown.

“It is a great experience and to do it again with a new and different project will be lots of fun,” Benson said.

After high school, Benson will be attending the University of Saskatchewan.

“I am looking forward to going up there and hopefully spending the next couple of years getting my degree in Engineering,” Benson said.

The National Science Fair runs from May 11 to May 18.