What can I do to help protect the IBA?

Lac Deschenes is near one of the largest urban areas in the country, and faces many pressures. You can do your part to help keep Lac Deschenes clean, healthy and accessible for wildlife, for people, for generations. Pressures on the site include:

•    water withdrawals for human consumption, municipal and industrial uses
•    direct urban run-off into the river
•    traffic related to recreational boating and sailing
•    overflow drainage from storm and sanitary sewers
•    residential and/or industrial shoreline development
•    shoreline erosion

Much of the IBA on the Ontario side of the river is made up of National Capital Commission lands, which are actively managed. Land ownership on the Gatineau-Aylmer side of the river is more varied and includes private residential and commercial property, as well as lands managed by the NCC and the Ville de Gatineau. Because the IBA is mostly aquatic and spans two provinces, the two provincial governments and the federal government all have a responsibility to manage and protect the site and its wildlife.

Nature Canada, alongside the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Club, the Outaouais Birding Club and key stakeholders are developing a Conservation Plan for the Lac Dechênes IBA, which will help to identify the state of the IBA, the pressures it is facing and the collective responses that are required to address those pressures. This plan will provide a roadmap for how stakeholders, including you, can work to protect the IBA from negative pressures.