I was out for a walk along the canal earlier today. As I approached Pretoria Bridge I noticed there was something floating on the water. Getting closer, it became clear that this part of the canal is the Rideau Canal’s equivalent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, except for pond scum (mostly).

Now, I know that the canal workers will be clearing this out as they do every year, but I was surprised at just how much there was. And I wasn’t alone in this – I heard a number of people talking about it as they walked along.

Not exactly the best thing, perhaps, for tourism, but at least the ducks seemed happy as they munched on it.

A couple of days ago I noticed a couple of new applications had been “pushed” to my BlackBerry by Rogers. One of them was the urMusic app (well, actually a shortcut to the installer) and the other was the Brian Challenge 2 Demo.

I don’t use my BlackBerry as an MP3 player, so the urMusic isn’t really of interest to me, but it’s nice to have a few games on it to pass the time when waiting somewhere. So, I clicked on the icon to check it out.

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Charles over at Gatineau Park News has posted a transcript of Eric Grenier’s update on the future of climbing on the Eardley Escarpment under the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan. He has also posted the audio from Eric’s update along with the full audio from the meeting.

A tip o’ the hat to Charles for putting it together.

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, summarized the current state of affairs and said the immediate problem is getting the National Capital Commission’s attention and convincing them that the dialogue hasn’t finished yet – if anything it’s just starting:

“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.” – Eric Grenier

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Just a reminder about the  information session to discuss the impact of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan on climbing in Gatineau Park being hosted by the Ottawa-Gatineau Climbers’ Access Coalition at the MEC Ottawa Store this evening at 7:15pm. If you’re a climber, you need to attend this very important meeting.

The Gatineau Park News blog mentioned that the Gatineau Park Protection Committee released the following “press release” (of which I’m only quoting the English version after the jump) concerning their “review” of the full version of the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan document, which they “leaked” on their website:

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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 the meeting being hosted by the Coalition at the MEC store in Westboro this Monday at 7:15pm.

A tip o’ the hat to Gatineau Park News for blogging about the MEC blogue article.