gordon.dewis.ca » Environment

300 geocaches in Gatineau Park poised to disappear, many of them unnecessarily

gordon — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:19:00 +0000

A couple of days ago a number of geocachers who own caches that are in Gatineau Park received the following message: You are receiving this message because one of your caches is located within the territory of Gatineau Park. The National Capital Commission (NCC) wishes to control Geocaching in the Gatineau Park. Therefore, it is [...]

My thoughts on the Climbers’ Access Coalition information meeting

gordon — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:07:42 +0000

The Ottawa-Gatineau Climbers’ Access Coalition information session on the implications of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan (GPECP) took place Monday evening. At least 100 people attended the meeting, which was held at the Ottawa Mountain Equipment Co-op store. Eric Grenier, chair of the Coalition, summed the current relationship with the NCC by saying “How do we engage them in that process? I think that the way we have to go about doing that is by employing public influence.”

Read more about the meeting at my blog, where you'll also find links to other bloggers who have written about it.

Epic FAIL for the Gatineau Park Protection Committee

gordon — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:00:00 +0000

The Gatineau Park News blog mentioned that the Gatineau Park Protection Committee released a "press release" about their "review" of the full version of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan (GPECP), which the GPCC "leaked" on their website. Unfortunately, the Gatineau Park Protection Committee has failed in a particularly spectacular manner because they chose to focus on the trvial problems with the plan instead of the important problems. Please visit my blog to read the full story and decide for yourself.

MEC weighs in on the climbing restrictions in Gatineau Park

gordon — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:24:00 +0000

Mountain Equipment Co-op’s French blogue has a piece that talks about the climbing restrictions that are going to be the result of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan (GPECP) that I’ve written about recently. People are encouraged to sign the climber petition and join the Ottawa-Gatineau Climbers’ Access Coalition. Also, people should come out to [...]

Limestone versus Granite: Appendix 2 of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan

gordon — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:50:01 +0000

So, I’ve been reading the full version of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan during the last week or so, along with a number of research articles that it cites. Of particular interest (to me anyway) is Appendix 2, which is titled “Eardley Escarpment description and conservation issues”. This is where the authors of the GPECP lay out why, in their opinion, climbing should be all but banned from Gatineau Park. You can read the rest of this entry on my blog... :)

A closer look at geocaching and the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan

gordon — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:41:56 +0000

John Goatcher, a local geocacher, sent me a map that overlays geocaches in and around Gatineau Park on top of the map found on page 39 of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan (GPECP). As you’ll recall from my previous post, geocaches in the integral conservation zone “will be relocated in areas that are less sensitive before the end of summer 2010”. Please visit my blog to see the maps and read the full story.

Enforcement statistics for the first two years of Ottawa’s Idling Control by-law

gordon — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:44:36 +0000

My recent entry reminding people that the temperature during the days lately have been such that the Idling Control by-law (Bylaw #2007-266) got me wondering about how often people have been ticketed for violating it, so I asked the City of Ottawa for the statistics. Please visit my blog to read the rest of the story and find out how we're doing.

Geocaching and the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan

gordon — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:52:23 +0000

The National Capital Commission has released some additional information about the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan on their website. Specifically, they have released a Fact Sheet, the Priority Initiatives and a document about the species at risk. In the Priority Initiatives document are the various activities that will be affected by the GPECP. Besides basically saying ice climbing is pretty much banned from the Eardley Escarpment because it may interfere with deer in the winter (even though other parts of the plan suggest that there are too many deer in the park and the law being used as the justification is a provincial law and not a federal law), it also mentions geocaching. Please visit my blog to read the whole article.

Conservation versus Recreation: The Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan

gordon — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:49:27 +0000

The National Capital Commission released the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan (PDF version) last week, which they’re calling “an essential reference document for Gatineau Park through 2035”. Basically, the GPECP is a long-term plan for the management of the various ecosystems in Gatineau Park. It describes the current state of and threats to the ecosystems and the steps that they believe must be followed to in order to protect and restore them. Effectively, this means that the number of routes available to rocks climbers will drop from an estimated 500 route to as few as 40. In other words, a 90% reduction in the number of available routes. To read the whole article, please visit my blog. :)

Warm weather means turn your engine off

gordon — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:37:28 +0000

I just checked the Environment Canada website and at noon today the temperature was 10C. This means that Ottawa drivers risk running afoul of the by-law enforcement officers if they're observed idling their cars for more than three minutes if the temperature is 5C or warmer, taking into consideration the windchill. Please visit my blog for the rest of the story. :)