Canadian Ecology Centre
The Canadian Ecology Centre (CEC) is an outdoor education complex located within Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, near the town of Mattawa, Ontario.
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 logging 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.
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 science course, is almost invariably booked solid even with two back-to-back itinerations of the course.