NOT Do Not Enter
Update: Ken, in the comments below suggests this is a April fool prank. If so it got me.
“The NCC has already taken steps to close off Conservation Area 3. I was up at the Champlain Lookout and Trail #1 towards the fire tower and the Eardley Escarpment is permanently closed. They put up barricades with "do not enter" signs.”
While this is a firsthand account, I wonder if there is some misunderstanding because the Ecosystem Conservation Plan does not call for the closure of this trail. I have put in a request with the NCC to see what’s cooking.
Looking at the map from the Plan we see that Trail #1 is zoned as an “extensive recreational link” (that’s what that striped snaky thing is). The Plan does propose zoning changes but not for this trail.
The zoning changes proposed in this part of the park are identified as “discrepancy” or “divergence” 2, 3 & 6 (the discrepancy versus divergence wording is inconsistent and perhaps a vestige of translation?)
- Discrepancy 2 calls for the flat land at the base of the escarpment to have increased zoning protection.
- Discrepancy 3 actually calls for reduced zoning protection for the specific rock walls that are designated for climbing; these now being within a zone that would not officially allow climbing.
- Discrepancy 6 is one to watch. This is for the Eardley plateau and calls for increased zoning protection in the areas to the northeast of the Champlain Parkway between the Fortune Parkway and Champlain Lookout. This is the area through which Ridge Road passes Shilly Shally and Huron Lodge.
Ross at TriRudy continues his post saying
“Undoubtedly the "conservation officers" who put up the barricades drove up in their ATV's. I'm going hiking in the Adirondacks this weekend, the NCC stinks!”
This is important because it is a reflection of the credibility gap that the NCC is facing. TriRudy is a widely read online service among Ottawa athletes whose demographic maps closely to skiers, cyclists, climbers and others who use Gatineau Park regularly.
April 1st, 2010 - 10:23
I believe Trail no. 1 to the fire tower is the footprint of the parkway that was supposed to run along the escarpment, as recommended by the 1953 parkway subcommittee.
Major roadworks were undertaken, and to close this road is the height of idiocy.
Canadians should engage in civil disobedience and keep using this road.
The NCC’s motto–and that of its bosses the residents’ associations: “The people are my enemy, and I shall devise all the means I can to harm them.”
Meanwhile, park residents continue to get away with murder…
April 1st, 2010 - 14:41
Perhaps you should both look at a calender before preparing a demonstration
April 1st, 2010 - 15:03
Got me.
I cycled up and looked for said barricades and signage but there were none.
April 1st, 2010 - 21:57
Okay, I’ve been had. Poisson d’avril !
April 6th, 2010 - 07:28
Even as I posted back to TriRudy admitting gullibility, another poster had zinged the NCC over the purported closure. Fool or no – there’s something to think about here…
http://www.trirudy.com/region/OE/list/index.cfm?listing=2334#1
April 6th, 2010 - 08:25
True, it was a “joke”, but it was spurred on by my “displeasure” that the NCC does indeed intend to close off this area later this coming summer
April 6th, 2010 - 10:02
I think there will be more areas …. someone building an empire off this (closure and protection).
When in reality, how can we “cage” the animals to confined areas that we humans defined for them. Animals should be free to roam as they may not caged in by some human defined “cage”.
What is the problem – human’s invading the space of other creatures as we don’t share well…
why is this happening – human population is growing to keep this thing called GDP rocking and rolling all night long…. (housing is a big component).
solution – limit the growth. There are 6.5 billion of us! And, growing!
We need to grow smart, with thought, and vision.
I think all prestine areas on the planet are threatened tremendously. Humans, we like to eat.
In my view, the gatineaus will recover from a lot of abuse. Winter ensures recovery. Mother nature comes along and cleans it up.
April 12th, 2010 - 10:27
And I’ve just read the full Conservation Plan. Turns out some of the material used to justify limiting rock climbing was written by an individual who … wait for it … has considerable private property interests in the park …
His immediate family owns about 2 acres right off the no. 1 trail near Penguin Picnic (the log cabins). And his brother in law owns some 50 acres in Gatineau Park.
I attended a meeting in the East Bloc where he tried to convince Senator Spivak that her bill did not properly recognize private property rights in the park.
And his colleague, another prominent “environmentalist,” also owns property in Gatineau Park (as confirmed to me by Trudeau scholar Robert Boyd, author of the excellent “Wild by Law.”) This so-called professor gets his students every year to write papers justifying the existence of private property in national parks!!
Eco-frauds to the left of us, eco-frauds to the right of us, all round eco-frauds argued for the people to be kept out of the park!! While they continued to enjoy a privilege even the NCC in all its master plans must be eradicated from the park.