Goal: Protect and enhance the natural environment in and bordering Champlain Park.
Unique environmental feature of Champlain Park: It has become a major recreation and conservation trailhead for the City of Ottawa and the National Capital Commission (NCC) due to its location on the Ottawa River, south of the Kichi Zibi parkway and adjacent to a wide stretch of NCC managed riparian forest called the Champlain woods. The undeveloped Remic beach and Remic Park on the river’s edge are nearby. The Champlain community park is adjacent to the Champlain woods and it provides one of the few year-round multi-use pathway access points in the City to the River, in this case via the Carleton Ave underpass. In 2020, with the support of the City councillor Jeff Leiper, Pontiac Street was de-paved by the community to create a continuous green space between the community park and the River. The trail head now begins at the field house.
Kichi Sibi trail extension. Over the past several years the environment committee has retained permission from the NCC to undertake limited maintenance and remediation works on the properties it manages. With the help of volunteers and the NCC Ottawa Land Manager, the committee has removed invasive tree species (such as buckthorn) and deadfall trees, and has extensively resurfaced the trail surface with wood chips to create multi-use and emergency access trails in the Champlain woods. In winter, these pathways are integrated into the larger Kichi Sibi Winter Trail (KSWT) network which is maintained and managed by a separate group of dedicated volunteers under the supervision of snow groomer Dave Adams, the Winter Trail manager. During the rest of the year the trails are used for hiking, on-leash dog walking, organized bird watching, eco school field trips by St George and Elmdale students, university research, etc..
Biodiversity conservation and enhancement along community boundaries. A major initiative by the committee and its volunteers has been to enhance the community’s ‘green gateway’ to the Champlain forest and river pathway system. Along Pontiac Street, old fences, gravel parking spots, and invasive buckthorn were removed and replaced with terraced and street level gardens. At the east end of Pontiac a dense mini-forest of native trees and shrubs was planted. At Carleton Ave, a biodiverse pollinator garden was created. West of this, there is a terraced demonstrator plantation of Carolinian trees and shrubs. Farther west there is an ethnobotanical terrace with native medicinal and food species, as well as a native herb garden. Several other native species planting sites in the Champlain woods are also in development or under the care of the committee. Over 150 species of native species have been planted in these areas. More than 300 trees and shrubs, and a host of other plants have been situated in these spaces to supplant invasive species, and to remediate the previously impermeable surfaces.
The Environment Committee now has its own web site at https://urbanforestgreenspaces.wordpress.com/
To join the Environment Committee or learn more about its activities contact volunteeers Kris Phillips (kriscpca@gmail.com) or John Arnason (john.arnason@uottawa.ca).
Environmental Committee Chair: Shelagh Jane Woods
Tribute to famous former member, https://champlainpark.org/2024/04/25/tribute-to-daniel-buckles/