Laura Beaudry and eight-month-old Jake Smith learn about the Rideau River at the Canadian Museum of Nature.
An exhibit designed to teach Canadians about the importance of aquatic life began its cross-country tour earlier this month at the Canadian Museum of Nature and features glimpses of Ottawa’s own ecosystems.
Canada’s Waterscapes: Yours to Enjoy, Explore and Protect features insight into lakes, oceans, rivers, wetlands and estuaries from across Canada – including the Rideau River. One of the pieces in the exhibition is an eco-model of the Rideau River.
Visitors can see below the water to observe species, including fish, frogs, plants and zebra mussels, an invasive mollusc that has become central to the challenges facing the waterway that feeds the Rideau Canal.
“The Rideau River is a heritage river and it’s a good example of a river that runs through urban areas that’s actually still quite a clean river,” says Carol Campbell, a senior project manager at the museum.
“I guess people have respected it along the way and so it’s a good example of how you can maintain natural areas within something that’s huge in urban population.”
Because Canada is a water wealthy nation, there is a “myth of abundance,” and people tend to take water for granted because it is readily available to most citizens, Campbell says.
“I think it’s a matter of trying to increase the appreciation for that and getting people to see the true value of what we have,” she says.
In addition to hands-on activities and visual models of water ecosystems, Waterscapes features a stewardship section where visitors can learn about what conservationists are doing to protect this natural resource.
“The mandate is to educate and promote respect for and knowledge of the natural world and specifically our ecosystems in Canada,” says museum spokesperson Laura Sutin.
The benefit of the national travelling exhibition is that it educates people about what surrounds them, as well as parts of the nation they are unfamiliar with, says Jean-Marc Gagnon, the museum’s chief collection of invertebrates.
“We wanted to reach beyond the National Capital Region. We wanted a subject that would have a life in terms of its duration. We also wanted a subject that people would care about, or should care about.”
Travelling exhibitions usually take about three to four years to tour the country. But Rachael Gervais, the museum’s coordinator of travelling exhibitions, says she expects the water study to travel much longer as there has been much interest in it from venues across the country.
“The demand is there, so as long as the host venues are interested in hosting it, we don’t stop the tour.”
Waterscapes will remain in Ottawa until Jan. 3, then move to Montreal and the East Coast.
The museum will then open the Water Gallery May 2010, a permanent gallery dedicated to aquatic life and designed to sustain interest in water systems.