I reflect back on the years I have spent in this region, in the wake of the news that an asphalt plant is looking to build right behind our beautiful escarpment.

I have walked, ridden and skied the Jessup’s falls escarpment for over 20 years. I have visited the escarpment behind my home in all the seasons. Like a beckoning call, the trees invited me in. I spent summers walking through the forest , resting and listening to frogs by the cooling ponds of water that, even in the heat of summer, thrive in the lush forest. One fall, I tracked a moose from the hill behind our property to the fields they plan to decimate. In the winter, I would carefully tip toe on my cross country skies across water bubbling beneath the snow, careful not to shorten my ski adventures by getting a soaking!! Well worth it as the run down from the top of the escarpment in the trees was beautiful and exhilarating. In the spring, every year I am amazed as our fields are flooded by the run-off  from the fields above and puzzled as I watch all that water rush into the rocks beneath the escarpment.  Where does it go?

What will fill our fields if a an asphalt plant is built upstream? What will fill the nation river? And as we go further downstream, the Ottawa river?

The lady of the Falls, cries once more.

by Suzanne Bohay