On Friday, June 20^th the Ottawa Valley Section held their Annual Meeting in Chelsea, Quebec., a short 20-minute drive north of Ottawa.

Although a separate community, Chelsea is surrounded by the beautiful Gatineau Park which is owned and managed by the National Capital Commission.  Over the years, Chelsea has grown from a quaint and a bit quirky historical artifact of the park to a hopping social hub, almost like a mini-Whistler.  The meeting was held on the second-floor meeting room of the Chelsea Pub…a perfect location for a forestry meeting.

Apart from the usual review of reports (financial, Director, Chair, Minutes, etc) we welcomed a new and youngest member to Council, Alison Bijman, who recently moved from Alberta and is pursuing her RPF with the OPFA.  We were 14 in attendance plus 6 proxies easily meeting all our by-law requirements for quorum.

We were very fortunate to have four speakers covering a range of topics including:

• Victor Brunette provided a very thorough overview of the 2024 CIF-IFC UK Forestry Tour complete with maps, pictures and some graphics. In contrast to Canada’s forests these in the UK generate considerable revenues from a wide range of forest uses, not limited to timber and many of them are within easy driving of millions of users. A highlight was a vist to the forests on the Duchy of Cornwall, an estate established by the Crown in 1337 and headed by the Duke of Cornwall, Prince William.
• Christopher Minnes, the founding Director of Eco-Echo, a local environmental not-for-profit who has worked closely with some Section members over the years, talked about his experiences and organization Accueil/Home – Eco Echo. Chriopher and his organizations are committed to expanding tree cover and wise stewardship of local forests.
• Rudi Markgraf, Development Counsellor for the MRC des Collines (municipality) is heading up a six-municipality survey of community forest resilience. Working with Christian Messier of the University of the Outouais  and the Institute for Science of Temperate Forests at Ripon, Quebec Home – ISFORT  Rudi is in the early stages of what will be a very thorough survey and mapping of key factors influencing forest resilience across these 6 municipalities.
• Bruno Chicoine, forester with the national Capital Commission talked about the challenges of managing trees and forests in a large semi-urban landscape and meeting their stated goal of establishing 100,000 new trees by 2026.

Presentations were followed by a very elegant lunch which included an impressive selection of very tasty pastries for dessert. A short field walk of the Sugar Bush Trail guided by Bruno Chicone was the perfect activity to walk off a lovely lunch.

 

 

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Submitted by: Jim Farrell, Director, CIF-IFC Ottawa Valley Section

June 25, 2025