Serving Ottawa's Westboro Beach Community
Cleaning the Capital is a citywide cleanup that occurs in the spring and fall of every year, bringing Ottawa residents together as a community to help clean litter from our public spaces. Join your neighbours from April 18 to May 3 and help make the Westboro Beach Community a little bit cleaner.
Check out the schedule, instructions and sign up.
It took many neighbours to put together our winter carnival. A big thank you to all of our volunteers – the chili makers, the ice block makers, the set up and tear down team, the fire pit managers, the snow soccer coaches, the hot chocolate and cookie makers and the marshmallow support team. This year we had 8 volunteers from the west end Rotary Club join us. We loved the spirit of community and positive energy they brought to our event. We had over 200 visitors from not only our neighbourhood but from Gatineau and Orleans.
The carnival included our traditional snow block wall and spray bottles for kids to paint, the fire pit to roast marshmallows (we went through 150 skewers and many bags of marshmallows), hot chocolate (5 large pots came and went) and homemade cookies. We added a couple new activities this year that were a great hit. We sold homemade chili, we borrowed a large warming fire pit and we had a snow soccer pitch! The kids were busy and the we all had a chance to connect and socialize.
A special shoutout to our very own Dave Adams, head groomer for the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail who helped out by grooming the area, transporting supplies and providing the large fire pit warming area. We were also very pleased to welcome our City Councillor, Jeff Leiper. Check out our chat with Jeff below.
We are already starting to plan our 2025 Winter Carnival, making it bigger and more fun next year. In the meantime, start planning ahead and mark your calendars for June 27th, 2024 for our End of School Beach BBQ! Let us know if you have any suggestions, we love hearing from you!
It’s time for our annual Winter Carnival! It’s looking like we’ll have lots of snow and fun. We will be gathering at Selby Plain near the corner of Selby Ave & Atlantis Ave (Google map link) on Saturday, February 10th from 12:30 to 3:30 pm.
Come for an afternoon of Winter fun. Warm your fingers and toes by the bonfire, roast marshmallows, enjoy some free homemade treats and a cup of hot chocolate (please bring a mug). We will also have delicious chili (vegetarian) for sale. Build a snow fort with our ice blocks or a snowperson. We’ll be partnering with Dave/Kichi Sibi Wikan Winter Trail for even more fun this year
Everyone is welcome but please be generous and make a donation to our association so we can keep doing fun things all year long for the community.
We have a sign-up form which will help us plan for the event and make sure we have lots of hot chocolate and treats for everyone who joins us
We want to start with a big thanks to all the volunteers from the neighbourhood (aka, hard working elves) who organized and participated in our fourth annual Holiday Parade and Food Drive. We collected over $600 and 500 pounds of food which was delivered to the Westboro Region Food Bank on Monday.
The parade had decorated floats, both big and small elves, bike riders, walkers, festive dogs (closest we could get to reindeer) and of course, Santa himself. Groomer Dave joined us again this year with his personal wish for snow. We will watch the weather to see if Dave is on Santa’s naughty or nice list.
The parade which started at Island Park Drive and ended at Westboro beach, meandered through our neighbourhood spreading holiday cheer and of course, handing out candy canes to everyone who came out to greet them.
We wish you, your family and friends a Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday and are looking forward to seeing you at our Winter Carnival on January 27th, 2024.
It’s our fourth annual Winter Holiday Parade and Food Drive. Come see Santa and make a donation on Sunday, December 10th, starting at 2pm.
Along the way, Santa’s helpers will be picking up cash donations as well as non-perishable food donations for the Westboro Region Food Bank. Of course, Santa’s helpers will have lots of candy canes for the kids!
Santa will be departing at 2pm from the corner of Premier and Remic Avenue and winding his way through the neighbourhood. Check out the route map.
Summer is here and that means it’s time for our annual Westboro Beach BBQ Celebration! It’s been FOUR years since the last one and it’s going to be a little different this year. The theme is “Meet Your Neighbours & End of School” and it’s all about meeting and getting to know the people who live in the Westboro Beach Community (here’s our catchment area). It’s the last day of school for a lot of families and what better way to celebrate and of course, not have to cook dinner than to drop by the beach, meet your neighbours, let the kids unwind, and enjoy a great evening together.
We will be selling hamburgers, hotdogs (both have meat and veggie options), and drinks. It is CASH ONLY.
HOT DOG = $3.00
HAMBURGER = $4.00
SOFT DRINK = $1.00
IMPORTANT: To help with planning, we would like you to select tickets indicating your food preference. It helps us plan and keep costs down by reducing waste.
We will have some fun activities for the kids taking into account the reduced area
Proceeds go to support the Westboro Beach Community Association. Of course, we’re working on the sunshine.
RAIN DATE: TBD. We are keeping our fingers crossed for sunny weather that day.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD?
JOIN THE WESTBORO BEACH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
| Be sure you stay informed and receive WBCA emails on upcoming events and issues. Register with us by sending your email address to: info@westborobeach.ca |
Here’s a small sample of what we do
| Activities Summer “Meet Your Neighbour” Beach BBQ on June 29th, 5 – 7:30 pm Fall Beach Closing, Bonfire & Marshmallow Roast in Sept. Santa Claus Neighbourhood Parade in Dec. Annual Winter Carnival & Bonfire in Jan. Spring Easter Egg Hunt | Advocacy LRT Construction and noise limits advocacy Traffic Monitoring and Consultation – Lanark, Island Park intersection, speed bumps & 30 kph limit Environmental Advocacy – trees canopy, maintaining green spaces Represent community with new developments – Island Park Towers, Spry/CBC building Presenting our community concerns to the City and the NCC |
Spring 2023 – Status Report
Prepared By: Dave Adams (Manager of the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail) in cooperation with the Westboro Beach Community Association
Date: Spring 2023
Background:
With the creation of an equipment service gate to support the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail, a small section of land adjacent to Selby Avenue was cleared two years ago of European Buckthorn, an invasive plant. With its removal, an opportunity arose, and this was to use the freshly cleared area to re-introduction native pollinator plants and native tree species. Seed stock and transplants were provided by the Fletcher Gardens and neighbours but with the condition that all donations had to be native plants/trees and effective pollinators.
The pollinator garden is 4750 Sq Feet or .1 of an acre in size. With it being small, the space is a manageable size by local residents, many of whom are skilled and experienced in these activities.
Keeping past studies in mind like the “Westboro Beach Area Stewardship Project”, which highlights that pollinator gardens are important and desirable for the Westboro Beach area, it is hoped that this garden will be the first of many that will help the biological and ecological diversity of our area.
The Westboro Beach Community Association endorses the project. The NCC did a site inspection by biologist Camille Tremblay.
Inventory:
| Native Plant Species | Quantity | Degree of Health | Introduced |
| Black Eyed Susan | sparse | yes | |
| Black Raspberry | sparse | no | |
| Blue Stem Golden Rod | yes | ||
| Butterfly Bush | |||
| Canada Columbine | sparse | excellent | yes |
| Canada Golden Rod | sparse | excellent | yes |
| Canadian Thistle | abundant | excellent | no |
| Catnip | abundant | no | |
| Common Mullein | abundant | no | |
| Common Yarrow | yes | ||
| Flowering Raspberry | |||
| Hedge Bedstraw | |||
| Joe Pye Weed | yes | ||
| Large Leaved Aster | yes | ||
| Lindheimer’s beeblossom | |||
| New England Aster | excellent | yes | |
| Orchard Grass | |||
| Prairie Smoke | |||
| Rough Golden Rod | no | ||
| Silverweed | Multiple | excellent | yes |
| Swamp Milkweed | yes | ||
| Trillium | sparse | no | |
| Yellow Rocket |
| Tree Species | Quantity | Approx. Age |
| White Pines | Sapling | |
| Cedars | 2 | sapling |
| Popular | 1 | mature |
| Amber Maple | mature | |
| Burr Oak | 1 | sapling |
| Norway Maple | juvenile | |
| White Spruce | 4 | sapling |
| Sumac | 1 | sapling |
| Boxelder Maple | 3 stands | Mature |
| Invasive Species Plant | Quantity |
| Dame’s Rocket | sparse |
| European Buch Thorn | sparse |
| Honey Suckle | sparse |
| Gout Weed | abundant |
Invasive Species Management:
Primarily it is the buckthorn that is the most abundant. Based on the recommendation of the “Westboro Beach Stewardship Program”, one approaches listed is the “Mowing Regime”. Essentially with regular monitoring and cutting down, over time these plants will be starved of light and will eventually die off.
This approach is the most achievable for our volunteers since this a project with no budget and limited tools.
The good news is that this approach seems to be working and buckthorn shoots are becoming less and less of a problem. We are observing that the native species transplants are starting to take hold and out compete the buckthorn that used to be so dominate.
There is one stand of Manitoba Maple still standing in the pollinator garden. The decision was made to leave it standing due to its ability to create shade.
Water Management:
In theory, all plants in the pollinator garden are native and have been selected for their characteristics of not needing a lot of water. Nevertheless, we want to set them up for success.
As a result, a water reservoir has been set up and plants get watered occasionally during dry spells by volunteers.
All small saplings also get extra attention during these vulnerable years in their development. They also have a berm of wood chips around their perimeter to minimize evaporation.
As the garden matures, it is hoped that less and less water subsidies will be required.
Community Engagement:
This project is endorsed by the Westboro Beach Community Association and coordinated by Groomer Dave of the Kichi Sibi Winter Trail. The garden is considered a joint project because it is mutually beneficial to the community association as well as the winter trail.
Neighbourhood children are also encouraged to help out by weeding and planting Common Milkweed seedlings that are propagated using seeds from Selby Plains.
And it should also be noted that an unforeseen, yet welcome, surprise is that this project has attracted outside interests. For example, local high school students have shown interest in the garden and are receiving high school credit for helping. Retired people have been another demographic that has come to help.
These two examples demonstrate the principle of “you build it, they will come” phenomena.
Picture from last summer (2022):
Detailed Map of Pollinator Garden:
Canada 150 Tree Project (Update):
Although the Canada 150 trees at the corner of Churchill North and Selby Avenue are outside the scope of this report, they are nevertheless in the vicinity and are part of the Selby Plains as a whole and hence, worthy of mention.
Unfortunately, the survival rate has been poor from the initial planting. Approximately, only 50 trees have survived. Possible causes of death have been the lack of soil and dry conditions. Both Selby Pollinator Garden and Royal Grove reside on large soil berms created during the cleanup after the creation of the SJAM Parkway.
Possible Next Steps:
Below is a map of the area:
Reference Links and ‘In the News”:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/westboro-beach-dead-maple-grove-trees-1.6093134
Mon, December 5, 2022, 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM EST
Online
This will be a virtual AGM. When you register you will be sent a Google Meet link for the Dec 5th meeting.
7:00 to 7:30 pm will be the usual AGM agenda which will includes:
The Board of Directors, and Friends continue to work hard, but we want to do more and are asking for your participation to help guide our community. The commitment is about 2 hours a month. The Board meets once a month, lasting about 2 hours. We do recognize that life is busy and you may not be able to make it to every meeting. Board Directors and Friends volunteer on committees and projects that most interest them. Only interested in the Winter Carnival? Community Kitchen? Beach? Pollinator Garden? History? Other? We welcome all.
7:30 to 8:15 pm our guest speaker is Councilor Jeff Leiper. Jeff will chat about his thoughts on the next four years, specific issues impacting the Westboro beach area and Bill 23. This will be followed by a question period. You are welcomed to submit questions in advance via email – info@westborobeach.ca as well as table them at the AGM.
8:15 pm Adjournment
NOTE: Everyone is welcome to join our AGM. Voting is restricted to those who live in the Westboro Beach catchment area, as defined here. Thanks.
Click the link below to register for this event:
It’s our third annual Winter Holiday Parade and Food Drive. Come see Santa and make a donation on Sunday, November 27th starting at 2pm.
Santa will be departing at 2pm from the corner of Premier and Remic Avenue and winding his way through the neighbourhood. Check out the route on our parade map.
Along the way, Santa’s helpers will be picking up cash donations as well as non-perishable food donations for the Westboro Region Food Bank. Of course, Santa’s helpers will have lots of candy canes for the kids!
Westboro Beach Community Association 