A 465-acre piece of land northeast of Ladysmith was officially designated as a dark sky preserve by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) earlier this month, making it the first place in the national capital region to receive this certification.
This designation is given to areas or pieces of land where artificial lighting is very limited and strictly controlled, and where active measures are in place to educate the public about the importance of reducing light pollution.
This moment has been a long time coming for Steve Durand, who began the process of applying for this designation for his land, which he calls LeTerrain, over five years ago.
When he moved to the La Pêche property from Hudson, New York, about a decade ago to begin a new life off-grid, he was in awe of the enormity of the night sky.
“My first few nights here, I was just blown away by the stars. I grew up in cities, so just the feeling I had seeing that [sky] was joyous and foreign and incredible,” Durand said.
Since then he has been trying to find the best way to share the wilderness of his property with other people.
“My idea when I first got here was basically getting revenue from sharing this great resource – the beautiful forests, sharing the trail network, just sharing, because I don’t know, what am I going to do alone here?”
Applying to become a dark sky preserve was one in a series of efforts he has been making to preserve wilderness and to help people reconnect with it.
First, he started with cabin rentals, then he tried to develop a seasonal membership model, and has since moved to renting out all cabins on the property to larger groups for retreat purposes.
But early on in this process, he realized obtaining the dark sky designation would be key to highlighting what is unique to his completely undeveloped land.
He created the non-profit organization called Earth and Sky Foundation with his brother and La Pêche councillor Claude Giroux, who was keen on making this designation happen.
“We needed to get the municipality on board, because they have to really support it. [ . . . ] With the dark sky park comes working hand in hand with the RASC and the municipality moving forward for generations to keep light pollution down here,” Durand said.
“So really, it’s a concrete protection of lighting, which is really protection of wilderness. I don’t know that there’s another way that a private individual or organization can create a protected zone recognized by the government, other than to create a dark sky park.”
Key to this designation is that the park be open to the public. For only $20, visitors to LeTerrain are granted access to the vast network of hiking trails that climb the many hills on Durand’s land, as well as night-time access if they wish to do some stargazing.
“There’s a big awareness and education element in it,” Durand said, noting part of what he’s hoping to share with visitors is the awareness of how connected dark skies are with the protection of wilderness, and also just create a simple place for people to reconnect with nature.
“It’s just creating a space to come, bring a chair, bring a hammock, and look up. That’s all you need. [ . . . ] People need help these days. They need to heal a little bit. They’ve been so disconnected from the wilderness, and I believe that that disconnect goes right down to a fundamental soul level.”
He has plans in the works to do an official launch of the dark sky park over Labour Day weekend, which will include a tour of the night sky guided by a local star-enthusiast, something he hopes to offer on a semi-regular basis.
“It’s one thing to just behold the stars, but it’s another thing to sort of, with a tour of the stars and the planets, you kind of place yourself within it in a relative sort of sense, in the universe, which is a kind of a profound thing I was never able to do before coming here.”
