QUEBEC’S DUMOINE RIVER WATERSHED FACES THE FUTURE OTTAWA RIVER HIGH ADVENTURE & FAMILY RAFT TRIPS
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Outdoorsman Wally Schaber explains why this remote wilderness deserves protection BY KATHARINE FLETCHER Chelsea, Que. resident Wally Schaber has written The Last of the Wild Rivers, an account of the Dumoine River, an undammed, hence “wild” river roughly 200 kilometres up the mighty Ottawa from Ottawa-Gatineau. Schaber’s book (published by Burnstown Publishing) reflects his passion for the human history of the Dumoine and its watershed of 5,380 square kilometres. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) calls it the “largest area of unfragmented southern boreal forest in Quebec.” Because Schaber has paddled and explored the Dumoine for the better part of 50 years, we sat down for an interview so he could describe the river’s watershed and outline what is needed to conserve it. Katharine Fletcher: Why did you write this book? Wally Schaber: As a teenager, I found the stories of the Algonquin, coureur des bois, voyageurs and lumbermen full of adventure, bravado and camaraderie with unique Canadian overtones. My first trips down the Dumoine brought that history to life and I began collecting oral and written stories of the gateway village of Des Joachims and the entire watershed. Everything came together as The Last of the Wild Rivers. KF: Can you paint us a picture of the Dumoine’s landscape?
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The Last of the Wild Rivers: The Past, Present, and Future of the Rivière du Moine Watershed [ISBN], by Wallace A. Schaber, is published by Burnstown Publishing House, Burnstown, Ontario, and retails for $30.
WS: When starting your canoe trip in La Vérendrye Park, the dry area you’d cross through into the Dumoine watershed is called “la Vérendrye Hillocks” – large sand and gravel deposits, and a boreal forest dominated by birch and spruce. Lac Dumoine itself is 81 square kilometres, part of the Dumoine Plateau, which is 11 per cent water, six per cent wetlands, with the rest being a beautiful landscape where rock cliffs jut from rolling hills and shorelines of granite or sand. All is covered in a mixed forest of birch, maple, oak, hemlock, and the “green gold” of the 19th century: red and white pine. The Dumoine descends through an elevation of 152.4 metres in waterfalls and runnable rapids as it winds its way off the plateau to the Ottawa River. For 150 years lumbermen cut pockets of this beautiful forest and floated the best timber down to
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