Best Ecological Park Ottawa Near Me

4worldlovers:
The Leitrim Boardwalk takes visitors along a 500m path through this provincially significant wetland south of the Findlay Creek community.


The wetland contains marshland, cedar swamp and calcareous fen – which is a rare wetland in the Ottawa area with non-acidic peat fed by cold groundwater rich in certain minerals. This area is designated as an area of natural and scientific interest, and is home to 90 bird species throughout the year and 40 migratory species during migration. This area is a headwater feature of Findlay Creek, an important cool water stream in the South Nation watershed.

4worldlovers: Our latest Urban Natural Area (UNA) stewardship project is the Chapman Mills West Woodlot located on Clearbrook Drive near the intersection with Strandherd Drive in Barrhaven. This is a 7 hectare low coniferous upland forest with minor wetland and hardwood elements. The City performed an ecological survey in 2004. Since then major development has occurred and the site has been bisected into two roughly equal areas by the new Clearbrook Drive, creating north and south sections. A new park, Mancini Park, will be built in 2016 abutting the southern end of the forest.

The community partner for this project is École secondaire catholique Pierre-Savard, which is directly to the west of the north section of the forest. The school has over 900 students, who will use the forest for green studies, community service, and exercise. The school has an Eco-School Gold Certification and is working towards its Platinum Certification.

Provide access to nature for the students; connect them to nature

The project began in the fall of 2015 with garbage cleanup and the removal of tons of invasive Common Buckthorn by the students. Over a period of weeks various classes dug out, pulled out, and sawed the buckthorn, creating huge piles to rot down into the forest. Students also mapped existing, informal trails and provided their GPS data to the City to help determine where formal trails should be created.

In areas cleared of Buckthorn, students planted 60 native trees and shrubs in May 2016.

We have a grant from the Community Foundation of Ottawa to fund the following activities for the students:

Planting of native trees and shrubs in areas cleared of buckthorn,

Marking the formal trail system, which will connect to the new Mancini Park to the south and to local streets,

Spring 2016 – Bio-Inventory. We conducted a bio-inventory of the forest on 29 May 2016 with help from the Grade 11 biology students and volunteer field naturalists. Experts will continue to rove the forest over the next year and record their findings. Information will be captured in a project on iNaturalist: Chapman Mills West Woodland Project.

Spring 2017 – The students planted 120 trees at five sites in the north and south forests. This included 10 Butternuts from the Butternut Recovery Program run by the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority.

The students marked trails in the forest and built bat boxes.

The OSC now has 24 bat boxes, which will be distributed to suitable areas throughout the city needing mosquito control.

The students provided content to two interpretive signs that were installed in July at the entrances to trails in the north and south forests. The signs inform the community about the biodiversity of plants and animals that make this woodland, surrounded by suburbs, an oasis of nature to be enjoyed and respected.