CPAWS Ottawa Valley Congratulates NCC on announcing plans for expansion of the Greenbelt

PRESS RELEASE

Ottawa – January 26, 2012 – The Ottawa Valley Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) today congratulated the National Capital Commission (NCC) on yesterday’s announcement of its intention to expand the National Capital Greenbelt by as much as 2,400 hectares. 

The proposed expansions will help the Greenbelt not only preserve the rural landscape around the city of Ottawa but also maintain important ecological connections both within the Greenbelt and between the Greenbelt and other significant areas such as the Larose Forest and the Marlborough Forest. CPAWS is pleased that NCC’s proposal includes hundreds of hectares of land CPAWS suggested be added in a submission produced last year. 

While we applaud the NCC for taking this bold step, we are disappointed that there are no plans to expand the Greenbelt in such a way to protect the South March Highlands or the Carp Hills to the west of the current Greenbelt. We are thus urging the NCC to seriously consider further expansions to ensure that the Canadian Shield landscape is at least represented within the Greenbelt and that connections are maintained to the west. We are also calling on the NCC to actively look at connecting the Greenbelt to Gatineau Park by way of a connection across the Ottawa River west of Aylmer. 

CPAWS is also urging both the City of Ottawa and the Province of Ontario to not only support these expansions, but to work with the NCC to ensure that lands owned by these two levels of governments are protected as part of this proposal. We further urge the Federal Government to ensure that the NCC receives sufficient funds to actually implement the expansion and to acquire key privately held lands. 

According to John McDonnell, Executive Director of CPAWS Ottawa Valley, the expansion is a very important first step, one that CPAWS fully supports, but he cautions that further work will be required to ensure that key natural areas are not only protected, but linked to the Greenbelt. 

For further information: 
John McDonnell
(613) 232-7297 or jmcdonnell@cpaws.org - visit: www.cpaws-ov-vo.org