The Ottawa Riverkeeper organization held a community clean-up out on Kettle Island the other day.
So that’s a view of the Ottawa River, just east of the downtown area. As you can see, the island is a good size — about three kilometres, stem to stern. It’s more or less empty, though by the looks of it there are some campers who make use of it. Recently there’s been talk in city hall of running a bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau and Kettle Island. Some councillors think it’s the best place for it.
And so when the time came, we were kindly ferried over from the New Edinburgh Yacht Club (you can see it in the photo above at the bottom-left) in a smart little skiff out to the island.
Now, while the trip was ostensibly to help out with the clean-up, the real purpose was to go unionid hunting on the island with Dr. Schueler. He had a theory that a certain rare species could be found there.
The stuff I came across during my search of the northern side of the island were mostly Elliptio, but there were a good number of Lampsilis Radiata. I found one Zebra Mussel as well. Of course there were other critters afoot — a few small Leopard Frogs, a good sized Pyganodon (sounds like a kind of dinosaur, but is in fact a mollusc), and also a Yellowlegs (but whether it was a Greater or a Lesser, I couldn’t say). There was a fiery red fungus too:
I don’t think the good doctor found the rare species he was looking for — although his bag of specimens was unfortunately mistaken for trash and carried off by one of the many keen volunteers who were combing the island that day.
But I must say that the expedition was a refreshingly meditative experience; it was wonderful to spend the day slogging along the shore in gumboots while picking up a shell here and an old bottle there. Beach-combing is really quite relaxing.
I came across and old dock or two that looked like they’d washed up on shore after being dislodged from their original locations:
And later on I encountered this strange promontory:
Not sure what purpose it serves. Here’s a view from the top:
Some of the trash found on the island was indeed more interesting than the usual fare — somebody came across an old moped, and I heard that the remains of an old Chevy Vega were found too (that had presumably been driven over to the island on the winter ice). Another rumour was that one volunteer found an old pistol! So it would seem that this island has a few stories to tell. I only hope that some of its secrets remain uncovered by the folks participating in the clean-up — I’ll admit that I felt a bit sad to see all the rusty artifacts summarily piled and shipped off to the dump, and without any regard for curatorial scrutiny!
So, do eco-people unjustly give human history the short shrift in favour of trees and rocks and water? Could be, but admittedly the historical record is probably not helped much by old bags of chips and rusty cans of beer. Either way, I’m going to head back to Kettle Island as soon as I can to see what’s left.
Kettle Island
The Ottawa Riverkeeper organization held a community clean-up out on Kettle Island the other day.
So that’s a view of the Ottawa River, just east of the downtown area. As you can see, the island is a good size — about three kilometres, stem to stern. It’s more or less empty, though by the looks of it there are some campers who make use of it. Recently there’s been talk in city hall of running a bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau and Kettle Island. Some councillors think it’s the best place for it.
And so when the time came, we were kindly ferried over from the New Edinburgh Yacht Club (you can see it in the photo above at the bottom-left) in a smart little skiff out to the island.
Now, while the trip was ostensibly to help out with the clean-up, the real purpose was to go unionid hunting on the island with Dr. Schueler. He had a theory that a certain rare species could be found there.
The stuff I came across during my search of the northern side of the island were mostly Elliptio, but there were a good number of Lampsilis Radiata. I found one Zebra Mussel as well. Of course there were other critters afoot — a few small Leopard Frogs, a good sized Pyganodon (sounds like a kind of dinosaur, but is in fact a mollusc), and also a Yellowlegs (but whether it was a Greater or a Lesser, I couldn’t say). There was a fiery red fungus too:
I don’t think the good doctor found the rare species he was looking for — although his bag of specimens was unfortunately mistaken for trash and carried off by one of the many keen volunteers who were combing the island that day.
But I must say that the expedition was a refreshingly meditative experience; it was wonderful to spend the day slogging along the shore in gumboots while picking up a shell here and an old bottle there. Beach-combing is really quite relaxing.
I came across and old dock or two that looked like they’d washed up on shore after being dislodged from their original locations:
And later on I encountered this strange promontory:
Not sure what purpose it serves. Here’s a view from the top:
Some of the trash found on the island was indeed more interesting than the usual fare — somebody came across an old moped, and I heard that the remains of an old Chevy Vega were found too (that had presumably been driven over to the island on the winter ice). Another rumour was that one volunteer found an old pistol! So it would seem that this island has a few stories to tell. I only hope that some of its secrets remain uncovered by the folks participating in the clean-up — I’ll admit that I felt a bit sad to see all the rusty artifacts summarily piled and shipped off to the dump, and without any regard for curatorial scrutiny!
So, do eco-people unjustly give human history the short shrift in favour of trees and rocks and water? Could be, but admittedly the historical record is probably not helped much by old bags of chips and rusty cans of beer. Either way, I’m going to head back to Kettle Island as soon as I can to see what’s left.