Gatineau Park
Overview
The Gatineau Park is one of the largest parks in the Ottawa Valley, stretching across more than 361 kms². Parts of Gatineau Park are accessible from downtown Ottawa-Gatineau and visitors can enjoy unparalleled recreational activities year-round on over 200 kms of hiking and ski trails and 125 kms of biking trails.
Gatineau Park has the greatest diversity of habitats of any park in Quebec, while being home to the largest number of endangered species. Gatineau Park lies in the transition zone between the Boreal Forest of the Canadian Shield to the north and the eastern temperate forest of the St. Lawrence Lowlands to the south. This means species found in one or the other zone both call Gatineau Park home, resulting in a unique ecosystem of animals and plants not found elsewhere in Canada.
Sadly, the current legislative status of the Gatineau Park does not include protections afforded to other national parks, and it is therefore under threat of development and industrialization in the future. This is why we are fighting to make the Gatineau Park a “real park” by granting legislative protection, which includes boundaries set in an Act of Parliament.
Species at risk need protected nature to roam and thrive.
The lack of a comprehensive land-use strategy for the surrounding lands and a buffer zone between the Gatineau Park and adjacent development is one of the greatest urbanization and development threats facing the park. This means when development is allowed to take place right next to the park boundary, species avoid the outer edges due to habitat fragmentation and human presence, effectively shrinking the size of the park in terms of its value to species. Urbanization and development threaten to destroy this vital habitat for close to 90 endangered plant and 60 endangered animal species.
The Gatineau Park provides habitats for 27% of all plant and vertebrate animals found in Canada, and more than 40% of those found in Quebec and Ontario. These species depend on protected biodiversity to survive long-term.
CPAWS-OV is calling for action:
We are calling on Parliament to:
- Establish Gatineau Park in legislation and dedicate it to future generations;
- Ensure that the priority of the Park’s management be conservation and ecological integrity;
- Give the National Capital Commission right of first refusal on the sale of private property located inside Gatineau Park;
- Stipulate that changes to Gatineau Park boundaries can only be made by parliamentary approval, as is the case for Canada’s national parks
We are calling on bordering municipalities to:
- Actively participate in the protection of Gatineau Park
- Consider the ecological integrity and benefits of having a healthy, beautiful park in their backyard when planning development
- Create wildlife corridors and buffer zones in their areas of jurisdiction
We are calling on the National Capital Commission to:
- Manage the park as they would a National Park
- Stop all new roads and development inside the Park, including the proposed new hospital at the Asticou site, which is within the park’s boundaries
- Acquire critical or ecologically sensitive lands around the park to serve as a buffer zone
- Work with local municipalities to define and establish viable ecological corridors between the park and surrounding lands
For more information please read our Gatineau Park report.
