Call for Input – Gatineau Park Conservation Brainstorm

April 15, 2010 in Uncategorized by Charles Hodgson

So some weeks ago the Ecosystem Conservation Plan came out. It got press because it had rock climbers up in arms. But other users are also going to be impacted and GuideGatineau gave critical comment calling on the NCC to come through with their purported desire to be open and transparent, specifically by engaging in more two way discussions with the climbers and with other park users.

Later I got picky about how there seemed to be little action in the action plan when it came to climate change and again challenged the NCC to aim higher.

And other people have other complaints about the Plan.

But that doesn’t mean that the general direction is a bad one. Keeping the park natural and healthy is something that everyone wants and that’s what the NCC wants to do too.

Part of that job is to communicate conservation to people and so the NCC wants to use the most effective message. Louis René Sénéchal works for the NCC and asked if I’d let GuideGatineau users help by brainstorming on that messaging. In this video he says:

“I want the input from park users to provide me with ideas for a catchphrase, a tagline, that would in a few words summarize the intention of the Conservation Plan. [It needs to] provide a feeling of a fine balance between people belonging in the Park and the Park belonging to the plants and animals that live in it. We have lots and lots of users in the park. The vast majority of users  come in with the intention of leaving little or no trace. The protection of the Park is everybody’s business. [One French tagline we like is] “protéger le parc, une visite a la fois”;  it does call for action, it says to the users take a look at what you’re doing every time you come in and that way you will be able to part of the long term survival of the Park. It’s really everybody’s business to protect the Park.”

The video also contains a few people tossing out brainstorming suggestions, including:

  • Ours to enjoy, ours to protect
  • Respect it for future generations
  • We need to preserve our precious gem

I might add

  • Protected, naturally
  • Visit what lives here
  • Protect it one visit at a time

Please us the space below to toss in your suggestion, or email me directly. All suggestions will posted (that’s what stimulates the brainstorm). Satirical or cynical posts will be posted too but redirected here instead.

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