COLLECTING GARBAGE TO HELP NATURE
Volunteers have been busy this summer helping to clean up Nature Conservancy of Canada properties. Pictured above in the centre wearing a vest, Marc-André Poirier, project coordinator for Nature Conservancy Ottawa Valley, explains the day’s tasks to volunteers on a property near Pontiac Station in Bristol, August 17. Both the work session at Pontiac Station and the one held the following week in Litchfield involved hauling trash, including some large items such as vehicle parts, out of the protected areas for transport to the appropriate waste facilities. Local municipalities are often helpful and offer to pick up some of the waste. Earlier in August, volunteers removed 280 metres of waste, including barbwire, from a conservation property in Clarendon. A bit further afield, more than a ton of waste was collected in Lac-des-Loups and trees were planted near Chelsea.
While some volunteers are local, others come from Gatineau and Ottawa. “It’s wonderful to be in nature and to do something that helps it is a bonus” said Jeannine Sigouin, who had carpooled up from Gatineau to volunteer on two occasions in the Pontiac this year. “It’s a chance to discover new places that are sometimes even close to home.”
Anyone interested in signing up as a volunteer with the Nature Conservancy can do so at https://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/what-you-can-do/conservation-volunteers/. – Deborah Powell
