The Ottawa-Hull Chapter of the National and Provincial Parks Association (NPPAC) of Canada was established in 1970, by a group of local citizens who had become alarmed by major development plans for Gatineau Park.  Within a short time the Chapter was involved in many issues in both western Quebec and eastern Ontario.  Eventually, the NPPAC was renamed the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Chapter adopted the name Ottawa Valley.

One of the key focuses of the Chapter’s work is the Algonquin to Adirondacks Conservation Initiative, a program to maintain and restore interconnected habitat for wildlife across the landscape that lies between and embraces Algonquin Park in Ontario and Adirondack Park in New York State.

This work has recently been incorporated within a broader CPAWS National campaign, called Eastern Woodlands, which seeks to maintain wilderness in the Algonquin-Adirondacks-northern Appalachians region.

For many years CPAWS-OV has had a special interest in ecologically-based management of Algonquin Park, the only sizable park in the southern portion of Ontario.

In Quebec, the chapter is working towards the creation of a large protected area in the Dumoine River watershed.  The Dumoine River is the only undammed river in southwestern Quebec, and a critical link between the Boreal forest and the Algonquin to Adirondacks region.  The Dumoine campaign is part of a broader Chapter initiative to establish significant protected areas and to maintain biological diversity across the Ottawa River watershed in Quebec.  An opportunity exists to make significant gains through the Quebec Protected Areas Strategy process in which the provincial government aims to increase the amount of protected areas to 8% of the province.  Nearly four decades after the Chapter was founded, we continue to be concerned about the ecological integrity of Gatineau Park and the growing pressures that threaten the viability of its fragile ecosystems.

Image credit (banner):
Marc Gravel