Special Activities at the Mackenzie King Estate this Labour Day Weekend
From the NCC
The NCC offers many special activities for the Labour Day week-end. Join us for a concert, corn roast, a contest and much more! For info click here.
Last Weekend to Enjoy Some Gatineau Park Summer Activities
From the NCC:
Last Weekend to Enjoy Many of the NCC’S Summer Activities
- NCC Beaches – Open Until Monday, September 6, 2010
- 40th Season of Alcatel-Lucent Sundays Bikedays – end Sunday, September 5, 2010
Gatineau Park Summer Student Impressed
Here's a post from a summer employee of the NCC who was impressed with the organization they worked for this past season.
NCC Saturday Short Loops Begin this Weekend
The National Capital Commission wishes to inform the public that sections of the Gatineau Parkway will be closed to motorized traffic every Saturday from September 4 to October 23, 2010. Outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy 8.2 kilometres of scenic parkways in Gatineau Park that are reserved for cyclists, in-line skaters, runners and walkers.
- Gatineau Parkway between Meech Lake Road and the Champlain Parkway Closed from 6 am to 11 am. This portion (4.8 km) is great for cycling enthusiasts who enjoy hilly terrain. (During the Fall Rhapsody program, from October 2 to 17, this portion of the Gatineau Parkway will be closed to motor vehicles every Saturday from 6 am to 9:30 am.)
- Northern section of the Gatineau Parkway off Meech Lake Road (P8 parking lot) Closed from 6 am to 1 pm This portion (3.4 km) is also suitable for families with young children.
A colour coded map of the routes is located at www.canadascapital.gc.ca/shortloops
Two Nice Posts
The blog Willow House Chronicles has posted two Gatineau Park related pieces; one entitled Champlain Lookout Trail and the other The Mackenzie King Estate. Each include a nice mix of text and pictures.
Wolf Trail Profiled in Ottawa Citizen
Dave Brown, Publisher of Ottawa Outdoors Magazine has written an article in Today's Citizen describing the Wolf Trail near Meech Lake and encouraging Ottawans to get out into Gatineau Park instead of just admiring it from the Ontario side.
Species at Risk
The Ottawa Citizen included this little nugget that it extracted from the NCC Environmental Report
Gatineau Park has 10 new additions to its species-at-risk list, bringing the total of species at risk to 168 on NCC lands with 143 in the park alone.
Ditto from Josh Pringle at CFRA
The National Capital Commission says 168 species are at risk on NCC lands in the National Capital area.
The 2009-2010 environment report shows 143 of the species at risk are in Gatineau Park, including wolves, Blanding's turtle and the peregrine falcon.
The NCC says it has committed to protecting the important ecosystems found in Gatineau Park by creating the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan.
Rock Climbing Update
Last night the Ottawa Gatineau Climbers' Coalition held a meeting to allow their membership to react to the latest NCC plan for climbing in Gatineau Park. The NCC is offering a restricted number of routes but wishes for the Coalition to sign a partnership agreement that will enable joint management of the activity.
This morning the Coalition president Eric Grenier was interviewed on CBC's Ottawa Morning show along with NCC Biologist Catherine Verreault. The audio for that interview is posted at the show's web page under the heading "Rock Climbing."
Eric Grenier reported that the Coalition saw itself as having three options:
- Accept the conditions offered by the NCC and work with them
- Reject the NCC offer but continue to work with the NCC toward better access
- Disband the Coalition in the view that it has failed in it's goal.
He reported that it was the second option that was chosen. He reiterated the view that has been reported here, that the climbers feel that the NCC has imposed these considerations based on outdated information and without sufficient involvement of the community.
Catherine Verreault spoke second and reported that the escarpment was the most ecologically sensitive and important part of the park, and also that the park is now operating with conservation as a priority. To Grenier's comment about peer review of the climbing management approach she indicated that the overall conservation plan had been reviewed my outside experts. She acknowledged the quality of the plan put forward by the Coalition and expressed gratitude for the efforts they contributed but she said that some of the ideas couldn't be taken into account because of the constraints of the Ecosystem Conservation Plan.
The difficulty appears to be that the NCC is operating on a basic principal that human presence in the area is problematic in itself. The climbers on the other hand take the view that their presence is minimal and that best practices now used reduce this even more. In the past they've claimed that the full historical list of climbing routes, approach paths and staging areas constitute about one percent of the escarpment.
When asked questions about the impact of climbing and how that compares with other activities Catherine Verreault said that their studies had not looked at those comparisons because that was not the goal. She said "the goal was to restrict the activity, to be able to protect more the escarpment because any human presence has impacts..."
Gatineau Park interpretive programs at Lac Philippe
I'm a little late off the mark with this but there are almost nightly interpretive sessions at Lac Philippe going on during August. You can see the calendar of what's on here for events both in French and English. I've transposed the English events into the GuideGatineau "upcoming events" list and calendar.
Bear Sighting
Cindy reports a bear sighting near Relais Plein Air and trail 5. That's the area below and to the east of Pink Lake.