The Ottawa Riverkeeper teamed up with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) over the weekend to host a surveying event on Kettle Island — with the aim of collecting evidence to help thwart a proposed bridge through the area.
A group of environmentalists canoed, kayaked and paddled their way to the island on Saturday for a routine shore cleanup, but volunteers were also invited to explore the typically restricted land as part of the NCC’s ‘BioBlitz’ initiative.
A ‘BioBlitz’ refers to a grassroots effort to catalogue the various plant and animal species in a given area. Participants can use smartphone applications that use artificial intelligence to distinguish alder buckthorn from Joe-pye weed, while noting the exact location of each species.
As the third-largest island in the Ottawa River, Kettle Island spans approximately 3.7-kilometres directly across from the eastern end of Ottawa’s downtown core, and has no permanent dwellings or buildings. The NCC acquired 98 per cent of the island in 2007 through a donation, and it also holds status as a nature reserve under the Quebec government.
During Saturday’s event, volunteers identified 92 different species that call the island home, including white-tailed deer, blue jays and bald eagles.
Ottawa Riverkeeper staff told the Ottawa Compass that learning more about the various plants and animals that live on Kettle Island could help mount legal opposition to a major infrastructure project revived by the federal government earlier this year.
The idea for a bridge that would traverse the island was first considered in the 1970s, and there have been several studies dedicated to exploring the proposal with the goal of improving traffic in the nation’s capital.
Most recently, the theoretical bridge was resurrected by the Liberal government under then-prime minister Justin Trudeau. In an announcement earlier this year, Liberal cabinet minister Steve MacKinnon referenced the Montée Paiement–Aviation Parkway corridor, a proposed pathway that directly traverses the western part of Kettle Island.
The government has suggested that utilizing the island would minimize the footprint of building a new link and accelerate the schedule for constructing an oft-considered eastern bridge, making the Montée Paiement–Aviation Parkway corridor the “most advantageous” route.
“The Government of Canada is taking concrete action to improve interprovincial mobility from east to west in the National Capital Region,” MacKinnon said in a statement.
“The announcement demonstrates our commitment to regional mobility, following our massive investments in the electrification of public transit in Ottawa and Gatineau, the replacement of the Alexandra Bridge, the introduction of the Rapibus and the O-Train, and the planning of the tramway project in the west end of the city of Gatineau.”
Next, the government intends to conduct an impact study and initial design of the proposed bridge. Public consultations on the idea will also be scheduled in the coming months.
