Monthly Archives: March 2010

Giles Morrell in a letter in the LowDownOnLine muses on whether former rock climbers will now swell the ranks of Gatineau Park photographers already trampling species; moreover should snapshots be subject to sanction.

David Foster, VP of the Alpine Club of Canada today responded in the Ottawa Citizen to restrictions on rock climbing and claims that those restrictions are justified.

His points boil down to claims that:

• rock climbers do actively respect ecological conservation;
• climbing has already been restricted and is managed under a written agreement  with the NCC;
• the agreement has been in place for several years and is being complied with;
• climbing takes place on only one percent of the Eardley escarpment.

Foster believes that managed climbing can continue without risk to rare plants that inhabit the cliffs.

Spiegel Online headline Deciding the Arctic’s Future Behind Closed Doors refers to the doors of Willson House, the government conference centre and one time stately country house that overlooks O’Brien Beach in Gatineau park.

UPDATE – There is no snow left so the event has had to be cancelled.

Though there is almost no snow left in the woods and little more on the parkways, there is enough snow left at Camp Fortune for a series of 2 minute sprint races planned for April 11.

Here’s what the promo says:

1st Annual – Nordix Fortune Cup – Cross Country Skier-Cross

$1,000 for 1st Place with a total of $1,500 in prizes to be won. Prizes will be distributed to the top 8 men and women along with door prizes.

What: A short 2 minute super-sprint track with 6-8 skier elimination rounds. Top 3 finishers advance to next round. Everyone will race at least twice.

When: Sunday April 11th, 2010, 10:00 AM will be the start of the qualifying rounds

Where: Camp Fortune Main Lodge with Race start/finish in front of main lodge.

Registration: Advance Registration is only $25 and can be done by calling Francine Drouin at (819) 827-1717 or e-mail fdrouin@campfortune.com Alternatively, you can register until 9:15AM on Race Day at a cost of $35, if there is still room.

This Race is an Open Event for 13 years and older or anyone who thinks they can be the King of the Mountain. Racers under 18 years must have parental signature. Eyewear manditory

Refreshments, Food, Beer Garden and Live Music Band

Web site is www.xczone.com/nordix.htm

The Climber’s Coalition Blog has posted a brief history of climbing in Gatineau Park

There have been questions as to why the NCC would publish the Ecosystem Conservation Plan summary but not the full plan. Some said it was a translation issue, others suspected that something was being hidden. In either case wasn’t it a little much in the internet age to ask interested parties to go to the NCC library or visitor center to view the paper version?

So I put these questions to Louis-René Sénéchal, Manager of Nature Interpretation, Information and Marketing for Gatineau Park. He’s only been on the job a few months so he said he’d look into it. He explained to me that what he had uncovered was that:

1. The Plan is seen by the NCC as an internal guiding document and not so much a public communications document. That is why additional pieces such as the summary and fact sheet had been developed.
2. The plan isn’t secret though. The delay in posting it is due to process requirements (admittedly bureaucratic) whereby everything that gets posted to the website needs to be reviewed by a group called “Creative Services” who check to make sure that the French and English versions match. This takes a lot of time because when a translation change is suggested it also has to go back to the original writer of that text to be sure the new translation hasn’t changed the meaning.
3. As noted by Gordon Dewis yesterday evening, the NCC has in fact distributed PDF versions of the full Plan to individuals who’ve made special requests for it, so it is available to the deeply interested (total length 178 pages).

From this it isn’t completely clear to me that the full Plan will soon or ever be posted on the website (I expect it will, but who knows). I am also not completely clear if there is a restriction on people other than the NCC to keep from posting a version of the Planthat hasn’t yet made it through the “Creative Services” process.

In any case there is lots more detail in 178 pages than there is in 45 so I’ll see what I can draw out of the document over the coming days and weeks.

Your intrepid reporter strapped on his helmet and went to see how far he could get cycling up the Gatineau Parkway before being stopped by the snow.

Not too far.

At this time the Parkway is certainly not passable by bicycle beyond the cliffy roadcut just south of the Hickory Trail. At that point the road becomes solidly covered with snow for extended distances. I did meet someone walking out who said there were some portions of bare road above but for the moment these are disconnected islands of pavement unsuitable for cycling.

Where the Parkway is open there are sometimes banks of snow to one side that in melting make the pavement wet so that even on a nice sunny day your feet and lower legs might get wet with cold spray.

The big arrow shows were the snow became more than bikes can handle. A couple of smaller patches near the uppermost small arrow needed to be walked (by me at least with skinny road bike tires) and the two lower arrows show places where there was still traces of snow in unexpected places. These will likely be gone very soon there is so little, but the hairpin turn on the bicycle path below Gamelin could be dangerous if you hit a little patch of snow while going at speed.

Anyone else who wants to keep people up to date on the expanding pavement can let me know and I’ll update.

Gordon Dewis has posted his examination of the impact of the Ecological Conservation Plan on geocaching.

His post provides both a map extracted from the Plan and a Google map showing geocache locations in and around the park. He comments that a number of caches are required by the Plan to be moved, and speculates on whether this will be done by the NCC or by geocachers.

In closing, his post expresses the hope that geocachers will be consulted as the Plan is implemented.

As noted here the pattern seen with both rock climbers and mountain bikers (so perhaps to be expected for geocachers as well) is that the NCC seeks an overarching group involved in the activity and then seeks to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with them. The idea is that the group itself aids the NCC in governing that type of activity in the Park. This sounds like a valid approach. The experience of rock climbers so far though is cautionary.

When the NCC released their Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan last week the document that became available was a 45 page summary. The plan itself is described in the summary as being 127 pages plus 4 appendices. This document was said to be available in paper format at a handful of locations.

The reason the full Plan has not been made available online is uncertain but I have heard anecdotally that it is because not all of the supporting material has been translated yet.

The summary was downloadable from the NCC website but since that time several other shorter documents have been added there for download.

Fact Sheet

A two page Fact Sheet has been posted which boils the plan down to:

• five conservation issues;
• a statement on the Park’s overall health;
• the NCC’s vision for the Park for the year 2035;
• six conservation priorities; and
• an action plan consisting of priority projects for the next few years plus ongoing monitoring

Priority Initiatives

A three page Priority Initiatives document gives some detail in the areas of projects concerning

• Eardley Escarpment Conservation and Rehabilitation
• Identification and Characterization of Ecological Corridors Adjacent to Gatineau Park
• Shoreline Rehabilitation for the Lakes in Gatineau Park

In addition the Priority Initiatives document describes changes planned to recreational activities and the Park’s desire to offer only environmentally respectful recreation. The following activities are identified as requiring some changes. This appears to be one of the first times that geocaching and hiking on unofficial trails are officially identified as activities targeted for more control

• Hang Gliding
• Rock Climbing
• Ice Climbing
• Geocaching
• Snowmobiling
• Hiking on Unofficial Trails
• Horseback Riding

Did You Know

A two page document titled Did You Know? has also been posted and it includes information including:

• species at risk that call Gatineau Park home;
• a listing of seven of the ecosystem and habitat areas within the Park;
• the uniqueness of the Eardley Escarpment;
• the success of the revitalization and protection of Pink Lake 20 years ago

Importantly the document points to the 1999 Plan for Canada’s Capital which designates the Park as a Type II protected area as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is under this designation that Gatineau Park is officially set aside primarily to preserve ecosystems and under which  recreational uses are given secondary importance.

Linda Payne reports from XCOttawa on a (not so savage) attack by a ruffed grouse.

Pop “ruffed grouse attack” into google and you’ll see quite a few stories of similar encounters, plus a few youtube videos.

Here’s the Hinterland Who’s Who link (which says nothing about attacks).