Canadian Ecology Centre
Encyclopedia
The Canadian Ecology Centre (CEC) is an outdoor education
complex located within Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park
, near the town of Mattawa, Ontario
.
and wood
industries, such as Tembec
, as well as by various levels of government, NGOs, and public donors to get the Centre off the ground. The CEC facilities, while contemporary in both age and design, are constructed almost entirely out of wood.
The CEC is primarily an educational and research centre, where courses on a wide variety of subjects ranging from local culture and history to biology and science to forestry management and mining are offered to the public. The site is also equipped with high-speed internet access, and can be rented out as a conference or meeting centre. Cabins can also be rented for a nightly rate as an alternative to "tenting it" in the park.
The CEC is also the headquarters for the Forestry Research Partnership, a partnership between Tembec, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
, Natural Resources Canada
, and the CEC ir is also home to the Canadian Institute of Forestry. The partners are primarily focused with studying and determining the most sustainable forestry practices in order to ensure best use of resources and best ongoing supply of quality timber
.
The centre, like much of the surrounding communities, is almost fully bilingual and offers most programs in English
and French
.
course, is almost invariably booked solid even with two back-to-back itinerations of the course.
Outdoor education
Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...
complex located within Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park is a provincial park spanning both sides of the Mattawa River. It has an area of 25.5 km² and is about 14 km west of Mattawa, Ontario, Canada...
, near the town of Mattawa, Ontario
Mattawa, Ontario
Mattawa is a town in northeastern Ontario, Canada, at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers in Nipissing District. Mattawa means "Meeting of the Waters" in Ojibwa...
.
Basic Description
The Canadian Ecology Centre site consists of a main building and several smaller cabins on a tract of land within Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park. The CEC is a non-profit organization and was supported by proponents within the loggingLogging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
and wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
industries, such as Tembec
Tembec
Tembec Inc. is a paper company in Canada. Tembec has approximately 6000 employees located in Canada, United States, and France. Tembec's operating divisions include Forest Products, Pulp, Paper & Paperboard, and Chemicals....
, as well as by various levels of government, NGOs, and public donors to get the Centre off the ground. The CEC facilities, while contemporary in both age and design, are constructed almost entirely out of wood.
The CEC is primarily an educational and research centre, where courses on a wide variety of subjects ranging from local culture and history to biology and science to forestry management and mining are offered to the public. The site is also equipped with high-speed internet access, and can be rented out as a conference or meeting centre. Cabins can also be rented for a nightly rate as an alternative to "tenting it" in the park.
The CEC is also the headquarters for the Forestry Research Partnership, a partnership between Tembec, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
Ministry of Natural Resources (Ontario)
The Ministry of Natural Resources is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that responsible for Ontario’s provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands and waters that make up 87 per cent of the province...
, Natural Resources Canada
Natural Resources Canada
The Department of Natural Resources , operating under the FIP applied title Natural Resources Canada , is the ministry of the government of Canada responsible for natural resources, energy, minerals and metals, forests, earth sciences, mapping and remote sensing...
, and the CEC ir is also home to the Canadian Institute of Forestry. The partners are primarily focused with studying and determining the most sustainable forestry practices in order to ensure best use of resources and best ongoing supply of quality timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
.
The centre, like much of the surrounding communities, is almost fully bilingual and offers most programs in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Eco-Camp
By far the best-known aspect of the CEC, however, is Eco-Camp, which is a summer program offering academic credit to high school students. Formal two-week courses in subjects such as Science, Biology, Environmental Science, Geography and Physical Education are available. The program is residential, and students live on-site for the duration. The most popular program, a grade 10 scienceScience
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
course, is almost invariably booked solid even with two back-to-back itinerations of the course.