My 7-day Nature Advocacy Challenge in Gatineau
Part 1: Coming out as a Reluctant Advocate
This is the first post of a special series, kicking off a personal challenge that I’ve created for myself: the 7-day nature advocacy challenge. This venture will require me to invest 7 working days’ worth oftime — 56 hours — into local conservation efforts.
From Nature Writer to Nature Advocate
I’ve created Travelling with Paper as a means to promote the protection of nature.
But it feels somewhat off to write about citizen-led conservation efforts without conducting campaigns of my own. Especially since I live in Gatineau, the fourth most important city in Quebec — which sits on the northern bank of the Ottawa river — i.e. a development hot spot.
Therefore, I’ve created a challenge for myself: dedicate a total of 56 hours to the protection of natural environments in my own Gatineau district. An experience that I’ll be chronicling here.
I’m not part of an organization or a group, nor is there — to my knowledge — any real conservation train to hop onto in my area. But that’s my angle: an upstream effort, before everything becomes insufferably confrontational. A plea to protect what we’re lucky enough to still have. A start from-scratch type of venture, truly.
Here are the rules that I’ve established for this challenge:
- Every hour has to be invested locally,
- The aim is to help protect natural environments without an official status,
- For maximum impact, my efforts have to be as public as possible,
- The time spent writing these posts doesn’t count.
I’ll be sharing the highs and lows of this journey as I go along. In the next sections of this post, I’ll be telling you more about myself — you’ll see that “challenge” is not an overstatement — and sharing more information about my city and district, as well as the context I’ll be advocating in.
The Skills and Attributes of an Advocate: I Don’t Have Them
So, I’m sure you’ve picked up on this, but it deserves to be emphasized: I don’t actually want to do this.
I do have a little nature advocacy experience up my sleeve; back in 2012, I joined an informal group engaged in saving a forest and wetland in Longueuil, on Montreal’s south shore (Quebec). But as the members didn’t see eye to eye, everyone went their separate ways before long. Except for a brief return to nature advocacy in 2015, I haven’t picked up my pilgrim’s staff again.
Through these experiences and my conversations with nature advocates, I’ve learned that these battles are way tougher than they sound. And with that knowledge in mind, frankly, I want to write about others’ efforts and call that my contribution to the cause. This is what I do. It’s my way to fight. But I know deep down I can’t.
So, I’m jumping in again.
Let me start this self-portrait by saying that I’m not a born advocate. Maybe you know — or are — one of these naturals. They’re good at speaking in public, can do five interviews a day without faltering, and go door-to-door, engaging strangers on the issues at hand. They have an impressive capacity to go through one depressing news article after another.
I’m not saying it’s easy for them. They’re people, naturally they get tired, depressed, and probably scared by how much others rely on them. Burnouts among advocates are all too common (if you are feeling burnt out, take a look at my article Advocating for Nature: 4 Alternative Ways to Fight When you are Depleted.)
But my gosh, I can’t help feeling that they and I are not made of the same material.
Let’s just say that I’m not especially well endowed in terms of advocacy skills and attributes. I get very nervous speaking in public, I tend to avoid group interactions, and my network is limited — a situation emphasized by me being relatively new to the Outaouais region; I moved here just a year and a half ago, amid the COVID lockdown.
And, worst of all, I’m crippled by fear.
I’m scared of how much I love the woods and grasslands beyond my backyard — no, my house is not part of a new development — and I live in constant fear that they’ll get destroyed eventually.
Being on the road makes me anxious because there, I inevitably see construction — in wooded environments — progressing and for sale signs multiplying.
And lastly, I choose to be an optimist, I’m afraid only people with a real talent for advocacy — i.e. not me — can make a change.
So, here we are. I’m ashamed of how much of a coward I am, but really, there’s no point in hiding it anymore. The fact is, I’m so sick of watching nature get destroyed at the speed of lightning — and for inadequate reasons — that I’m willing to bet my strengths can make up for these weaknesses.
Masson-Angers: Gatineau’s Nearly Forgotten District
So, I’ll be advocating for the protection of nature in my own district of Masson-Angers (MA), which is situated in the eastern part of Gatineau city. For context, here are a few facts about MA, which outline will be familiar to many suburbanites in Canada.
Suburbs in the City: Backwater Charm
One of five districts within Gatineau city, MA is known for not receiving its fair share of the attention pie. To say it plainly, a lot of what happens in the city happens in the western and central districts. That’s both a good and bad thing; it means less construction and destruction, but also a lack of interest in projects could enhance MA’s appeal. As illustrated by the recent demolishment of the “last authentic train station in Gatineau city,” which had been left to rot for years (article in French.)
The district is a quaint — albeit rather run-down — place. It boasts the charm of non-overbuilt areas, where residential and commercial development is not yet crawling.
Here’s one of the daycare centres:
MA has had development; it comprises many residential neighbourhoods — some of them built recently — and local businesses. To me, as a living environment, it feels balanced. But I fear that while I see a beautiful district with a healthy ratio between nature and buildings, many see a part of the city that’s behind in developmental matters.
The irony of neighbourhood nature is that the more there is, the less we actually see. It’s when there’s nearly none left that we start paying attention. Until then, forests are not forests, they’re considered either nonexistent or prime development land awaiting a project that will give it “value.”
This is what I sense in MA. Most of the natural environment here is not “official.” It’s land in limbo, without a status. Nature that’s not allowed to be nature yet.
And, trust me, I want nothing more than to be proven wrong about this.
Wetlands by the River
That being said, Masson-Angers does comprise a few protected natural areas.
But before discussing that, let’s get something out of the way. You might have heard of Gatineau Park, the largest green space in the region. But while awesome, it sits in the far western part of the city, and its neighbouring towns.
So, for us eastern folks, it can take up to an hour just to get there. Driving, that is. If you’re adventurous enough to attempt public transit, you’ll be enjoying a 2 to 3-hour trip each way. As for MA, there’s nothing like Gatineau Park in it.
However, conservation efforts are being made; they mostly focus on the wetlands by the Ottawa river. Two of those are protected by non-profits: the Marais Trépanier and the Marais aux grenouillettes (website in French.) Despite their comprising walking trails, though, they remain relatively unknown as nature destinations.
These wetlands total about 300 hectares. The provincial government also owns land there, but even using online tools such as the Registre des aires protégées au Québec (Register of Protected Areas in Quebec,) it’s hard to get a good sense of what’s actually conserved. I’ve asked Gatineau City for their official number: what’s the percentage of protected areas in the Masson-Angers district? Unfortunately, I didn’t get a reply.
As far as I know, there’s currently no citizen-led movement to protect more natural environments in MA.
And that about sums it up for now.
Until Next Post!
Which me luck, then!
My first steps will be to:
- Find out more about the city’s plans for its natural environments and,
- Reach out to fellow district dwellers.
In my next posts, I’ll be writing about where this takes me, and my strategies to stay strong and positive throughout the process.
Wherever you’re from, and whatever your level of advocacy experience, I hope you’ll join me on this adventure. By reading, sharing, and commenting on my posts, you’ll be giving me precious encouragement to keep going!
Also, whether you’re just starting out as an advocate yourself or have been at it for a while, please share your stories and tips in the comment section!
Coming up next
My 7-day Nature Advocacy Challenge in Gatineau | Part 2: Early Beginnings
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3 Comments
Jodie Turner
Look forward to following your Challenge Journal / Discoveries . . . and for what it’s worth, I view your Nature Writing as Nature Advocacy – giving people a voice is a big deal. For the most part, a story that is acknowledged by another’s telling is more powerful than one that is not.
Sophie Arbour
Thank you, Jodie. 😊
Yes, I agree. Words and stories carry so much power!
It just didn’t sit well with me not to at least try to push the issue forward in my corner of the world. Because I care about it as much as you conservation heroes do, and I have the means to do it.
In my eye, taking the plunge to advocate in my district gives me, as a writer, more legitimacy to talk about battles fougth elsewhere in Canada and the whole topic of nature conservation. 😊
Trevor Myles
Well written nice plan to channeling yourself and encouraging other to realize and think about what’s left of the parks and forest around them that are in danger of development unless they have legislation protection for one you mentioned the Gatineau Park one of Canada’s National Treasures is in big danger now as it’s not legally protected and the NCC can do what ever they want with the park, like they have now allowed 135 homes to be built in in its boundaries and sold 18.2 KM of the Gatineau Park for development. Unless the government passes legislation protection for it, it will continue dying the death of a thousand cuts, its habitat bulldozed replacing it with homes.
Especially now in the NCC’s new master plan their committee stacked with landowners have convinced the NCC to allow ECO-Friendly Homes to be built in the federal park boundaries. Two new homes going up as we speak one on Kingsmere Lake and one on top of Blanchet Beeach at Meech Lake above all by the ambassador of Mexico in your park, our park the privileged now have the go ahead to destroy another 1000 or more acres of its habitat replacing it with homes, eating away at the lungs of the Outaouais not caring about your future your protection nor a safe place to live and clean air to breathe just their Greed. The sad thing is the environmentalist, environment groups, media, the NCC, government, young people just have their eyes closed or don’t know or are about the destruction happing in the Gatineau Park, a park the NCC was hired to Preserve and protect the ecological conservation in the forest in the Gatineau park for future generations. Their not doing the job they we’re hired to do, to protect the Gatineau Park for future generations. The Gatineau needs legislation protection for now and future generations.
/Only When The Last
Tree Has Been Cut
Down, The Last Fish
Been Caught, And The
Last Stream Poisoned.
Will We Realize We
can not Eat money.
Write these officials tell them the Gatineau Park needs legislation protection for now and future generations, it’s your future protection their eating away with their greed. 🌳
nccinfo@ncc-ccn.ca
exec@ncc-ccn.ca
james.stott@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca minister@pwgsc.gc.ca
julie.miville-dechene@sen.parl.gc.ca jmcdonnell@cpaws.org greg.fergus@parl.gc.ca
sophie.chatel@parl.gc.ca pm@pm.gc.