Fall Shoreline Cleanup Success

Community members like you are making shorelines more beautiful for everyone and safer for wildlife.

Written by Joe Ryan

On September 26 a dedicated group of volunteers met up with Ottawa Riverkeeper staff members Brigitte and Amanda at Parc des Rapides-Deschênes in Aylmer to clean their community’s shoreline as part of Gatineau’s Big Cleanup. They got up early on a chilly Saturday morning and helped  to fill about 20 trash and recycling bags with litter and removed items that could be harmful to wildlife.

Howard Powles a Board Member of the Deschênes Residents Association, brought his wealth of natural and historical knowledge of the area to the clean up. Howard’s association has also created amazing signage for the park that informs visitors about the migratory birds that visit the site.

Howard educated volunteers at the clean up about the fact that site itself is part of a larger globally significant Important Bird Area (IBA) reaching from the Chaudière dam to the Sault-des-Chats Dam near Fitzroy Harbour. Waterbirds such as Canadian geese, loons, herons, gulls and more stop on Lac Deschênes as part of their migration.

Thanks to volunteers like you Parc des Rapides-Deschênes will be a safer and more welcoming rest stop for these migrating waterbirds. You can learn more about the habitat of Lac Deschênes here. If you want to gather your community to clean up your creek, shoreline or waterway we have the tools to help you Organize Your Own Shoreline Cleanup (PDF).

[slickr-flickr items=”26″ type=”galleria” autoplay captions=”off” descriptions=”on”  flickr_link=”on” flickr_link_title=”on” delay=”3″ flicker-link=”on” search=”sets” set=”72157658800029980″ items=”30″ flickr_link_target=”_blank”] See more photos from the event in our Flickr Album.

 


PROJECT CLEAR SKIES - PINNIES & SIGNS

Also a special thank you to the Ottawa International Airport Authority and Project Clear Skies for supplying us with volunteer pinnies and caution signs for our events.
We are delighted with these much-needed items which are already helping us to serve the community through our shoreline clean ups such as this one and to make this region the best place in Canada to live!