Welcome to your habitat

Ottawa is more than a collection of roads and buildings. It’s also a place where the water, air, land, plants, and animals are all connected together, forming what we call ecosystems. We are connected to these ecosystems, too, and we depend on them for clean air and water.

So just as much as this land is a habitat for other animals, it's a habitat for us. From an ecological perspective, a map of our habitat would look something like this:

Land: Ottawa straddles two ecological zones: the rocky, spruce-covered Canadian Shield (see the green portion of the map, above), and the lowland plains of the St. Lawrence region (in yellow), once covered by mixed forests.

Water: The water flowing down the Ottawa River comes from rivers and streams covering 148,000 square kilometres -- an area larger than New Brunswick. That means that anything that gets into the lakes and streams west of Ottawa inside this "watershed" (marked by the broken line in the above map) will make its way downriver to us.

Air: During the summer, the wind carries in polluted air from southern Ontario and the U.S., where there is a lot of industry. During the winter, the wind brings in cleaner air from the northwest. Because Ottawa is located in a valley, air pollutants tend to get trapped and linger in this area.

Did you know?

• At 1,271 km, the Ottawa River is the second longest river in Eastern Canada. ¹

• Nine pulp and paper mills release about 160,000 billion tonnes of wastewater, containing carcinogens and toxic substances, into the Ottawa River each year. ²

• Since the 1940s, radioactive contaminants have been released into the Ottawa River from the Chalk River nuclear facilities. ³

• Most fish species in the Ottawa River watershed have such high levels of toxic pollutants built up in their flesh that children and pregnant women are advised by Health Canada to avoid eating them. ⁴

• Trees and wetlands help filter and absorb stormwater. Ottawa's urban forest provides the equivalent of close to four million cubic metres of stormwater storage. The construction of stormwater management facilities for that volume would cost the city over $200 million. ⁵

Dig deeper!

Learn more about the Ottawa River watershed through the Ottawa-Gatineau Watershed Atlas.

Learn more about forests in the Ottawa area here.

Learn more about the plants and animals of the Ottawa area here.

Find daily readings of Ottawa’s air quality level here.

Get involved in protecting the Ottawa River, with Ottawa Riverkeeper.

Get involved in protecting our local biodiversity with the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, or the Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital.

^Sources:

^{1. Ottawa River Heritage Designation Committee. ""The Historic Ottawa River." Retrieved 2008 from http://ottawariver.org/html/ottawa/overview_e.html}

^{2-4. Ottawa Riverkeeper. 2006. Ottawa Riverkeeper's River Report. Issue No.1 ~ Ecology and Impacts. p. 45, 50, 61.}

^{5. City of Ottawa. Nov. 18, 2008. Report to Planning and Environment Committee and Council: Urban Natural Features Acquisition. Ref N°: ACS2008-ICS-ECO-0031.}