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.

Included in the GPECP are key actions on how they’re going to deal with various issues, including some that directly impact the rock climbing on the Eardley Escarpment. Specifically, they seek to “[c]onfine rock climbing to the two or three most damaged rock walls, where rehabilitation work will not be effective.”

They plan on achieving this by…

• Identifying two or three walls on which rock climbing could take place, based on their impact on the Eardley Escarpment ecosystem, their current level of damage and their popularity (also applies to Eardley Escarpment).
• Changing the boundaries of the integral conservation zone, as set out in the Gatineau Park Master Plan, to accommodate these walls.
• Restoring the environment of former climbing sites that are not selected, including any access trails.

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.

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So, it’s now officially Spring. March came in like a lamb and the first day of Spring has turned out to be quite a nice day. Hopefully, this is a preview of the next few months until summer arrives.

On men blogging: Among many of the male bloggers I know — especially the ultra successful ones — there’s a sort of rivalry to see how much stuff they can pump out, how quickly. That’s really a guy thing, don’t you think?

Ultra-competitiveness is not a male-only activity. Women are into one-upmanship, too.

Margaret Wente wrote an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail entitled “Why are bloggers male?” She basically states that blogging is “more of a guy thing” and goes on about it being related to why talk shows and opinion pages are “still dominated by male voices” and similar piffle.

The piece is accompanied by a picture and a tagline that reads “Guys get pumped by going higher, faster, farther than anyone else. That’s why they spit out instant opinions”. The tagline is attention grabbing hyperbole, so meh. The picture, on the other hand, is a little more controversial.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you may recognize this as a photo of snowmobiles at the site of an avalanche in Revelstoke that killed at least two people a few days ago.

Now, I don’t know whether it was Wente or some random editor that chose the photo to accompany her opinion piece, but whoever it was is lacking in good judgement. I’m sure that the families of those who died are thrilled at being used as the example for Wente’s piece.

Oh, and the last time I checked, some of the biggest talk shows on the air are hosted by women – Oprah and The Ellen Degeneres Show are just a couple that spring to mind. @benlucier on Twitter pointed out that The View should also have sprung to mind.

And at a recent gathering of bloggers from the Ottawa area, the ratio of male to female bloggers was evenly split, or possibly skewed in favour of the women. A quick review of my Ottawa blogroll shows that about half of the blogs listed are run by women.

Apparently, she’s pissed off women bloggers because they’ve added an editor’s note at the bottom of the piece that there’s going to be an online debate between Margaret Wente and female bloggers at noon on Friday. Should be interesting to watch.

As for the title of this blog entry, it’s taken from her opinion piece:

All you have to do is write “Margaret Wente is an idiot” and hit send. Instant gratification!

At least she’s right about something (and it’s not the instant gratification).

Updated to include a reference to The View.

Earlier today, the House of Commons has passed a motion 139:135 that reads as follows:

"That, in the opinion of the House, the prime minister shall not advise the Governor General to prorogue any session of any Parliament for longer than seven calendar days without a specific resolution of this House of Commons to support such a prorogation.”

While not binding on the Prime Minister, it makes it clear that the majority of members of the House of Commons do not approve of Harper’s recent suspension of Parliament. Cool.

Jack Layton uttered a great line in the House of Commons earlier today when the motion was being dealt with:

‘Our prime minister is not a king and it’s time he understood that.’

Regardless of your politics, you have to admit that’s a great sound bite!

A story posted on the National Post’s blog caught my attention in my RSS reader and screamed “click me”. The headline was “Woman aspires to weigh 1,000 pounds” and was based on a Daily Mail story.

So I clicked. And then I wished I hadn’t.

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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. I don’t recall hearing about anyone being charged since they started enforcing it a couple of years ago, so perhaps Ottawa drivers are turning off their engines when they’re waiting to pick someone up.

What do you think of this by-law?