The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society(CPAWS), artPontiac and Café 349 held an event on March 25 to celebrate an exhibition of art from the 2022 Dumoine River Artists Retreat.

Every year, the Ottawa Valley Chapter of CPAWS takes a group of artists on an expedition to the Dumoine River. The purpose of the retreat is to give artists the opportunity to experience the unspoiled nature along the river and inspire them to create works of art based on the experience, according to John McDonnell, Executive Director of the Ottawa Valley Chapter of CPAWS.

“We take a group of artists, anywhere between 15 to 20, of all forms of expression and all stages of their careers, on the retreat,” said McDonnell. “They come back and they create artwork and then they donate at least one piece to our organization. And then we sell that piece of work for fundraising.”

CPAWS is a non-profit organization. Its goal is to preserve wilderness in the region. The Ottawa Valley Chapter of CPAWS uses the money it raises to help protect the Dumoine, Noire and Coulonge rivers, along with the surrounding wilderness, according to McDonnell.

“Our goal is to create a park, but not quite a park, an area that is off limits to logging, mining and hydro development. That’s to preserve biodiversity, but at the same time it can create new jobs for Indigenous people from Kitigan Zibi and from the Pontiac. That’s sort of our vision to help diversify the economy of the Pontiac, so less reliant on the forest industry and more on tourism, ecotourism, adventure tourism and stuff like that.”

McDonnell detailed how the Dumoine River has already been made an aquatic reserve along its 1800 km length. According to McDonnell, protecting the Dumoine and the forests around it has various environmental benefits.

“With climate change species are going to need to migrate northwards to adapt to changing conditions,” he said. “And so by protecting a north-south corridor like that, species will be able to migrate more easily. And not just like species at risk, but also like culturally important species like moose which are an important animal for Indigenous people.”

CPAWS is also working towards expanding similar protection zones along the Coulonge and Noire rivers along with stakeholders like Kitigan Zibi, Le Conseil régional de l’environnement et du développement durable de l’Outaouais, the MRC Pontiac and more to accomplish that goal.

“The government of Quebec has already announced protection for about 800 square kilometres between the two rivers in June of 2022. And now our vision is to expand that to about 1,100 and 1,200 square kilometres.

McDonnell detailed a number of benefits of providing greater protection to ecosystems in the area.

“We’re obviously living in an era of climate change and biodiversity loss,” said McDonnell. “Those two are the twin crises. And in many ways establishing protected areas, or areas that are off limits to industrial development, can help with protecting biodiversity, but also with climate change. By leaving old forests, wetlands and other areas undisturbed, all of the carbon that’s in the ground essentially stays there instead of being released into the atmosphere. And then undammed rivers, intact wetlands and intact forests also help mitigate flooding and droughts. By leaving forests intact the snow will melt slower, and the runoff will be slower, and it’ll help prevent downstream flooding.”

However, McDonell says that there remains a lot of work to do toward expanding protected areas in the Pontiac.

“The province of Quebec and the federal government have committed to protecting 30 per cent of our land and water by 2030,” said McDonnell. “Currently, in the Pontiac, I’d have to go back and check but, you know, we’re at about maybe 10 per cent, in the Outaouais it’s 8-ish per cent. So there’s a lot of work to be done. And, I mean 30 per cent is really just the minimum. In some areas, we may have to protect up to 70 per cent because of the pressures of climate change, and changing patterns.”

ArtPontiac contributes to the exhibition by helping to manage the display room, according to Linda Roy from artPontiac.

The Dumoine River art exhibition at the Café 349 lasts until April 8.

You can register for the 2023 Dumoine River Artists Retreat at https://www.dumoine.org. The deadline is May 22.

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