In June 2008, members of Mississippi Mills Council (MMC) in Eastern Ontario, unanimously endorsed a proposal to create within Metcalfe Park, an existing park in Almonte (a Ward of about 4400 inhabitants within Mississippi Mills, 55 km west of Ottawa), a display of large blocks and boulders representative of local geodiversity. They further approved the renaming of this park ‘Metcalfe Geoheritage Park’ with an official opening ceremony scheduled for May 2010. In 2003, as an initiative of the Almonte Geoheritage Project (in collaboration with the Ottawa–Gatineau Geoheritage Project), the creation of a geological display in Metcalfe Park was first proposed to MMC. Neil Carleton of the Almonte Geoheritage Working Group contacted relatives of Dr. Metcalfe, a prominent early resident of Almonte, and received their endorsement for geoheritage park designation. Plans evolved during subsequent meetings with members of MMC, and support was obtained from other organizations, including the Mississippi Mills Chamber of Commerce (MMCC) and the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists (MVFN). Enthusiastic endorsement by all Council members, MMCC, MVFN and many relatives of Dr. Metcalfe (after whom the park was named; he was not only a renowned medical doctor, but also founded the local hydro facility within Almonte), have served to ensure successful development of an outdoor attraction that will provide an ideal setting for educating both local citizens and visitors about Canada’s geoheritage. Several self-guided field excursions have been designed to amplify what can be learned from the Metcalfe Geoheritage Park rock display, and a brochure containing this information will be available at the Almonte Visitors Centre, along with another brochure that will provide information about the rocks on display in Metcalfe Geoheritage Park.

Plans have been drawn up to accommodate 30 large specimens selected to display rock types, textures, structures and fossils. Nine specimens are now in place; 15 more have been selected and await transport and placement (Fig. 1). A recent appeal for additional specimens elicited numerous offers of donations from farms and rocky woodlots of MVFN members. Local construction companies have offered free removal, transport and placement of the selected contributions. The Metcalfe Geoheritage Park Project has gained substantial publicity through the Almonte Gazette and other local publications, greatly accelerating an awakening of interest in geoheritage. Don Wiles, a resident of Almonte and a Carleton University Professor Emeritus (Chemistry) has initiated the Learning in Almonte Series, a new program of educational lectures in collaboration with Carleton University. One of the first of the lecture series comprised six two-hour sessions on geoheritage, plus three local excursions to explore local geoheritage. Almonte has a fascinating history, and boasts numerous beautiful stone buildings. It has been satisfying to see how an extension of history from centuries to eons has come so readily to Almonte inhabitants.

Outcrops of Cambro-Ordovician Nepean Formation are exposed along both sides and within the median strip of the Queensway (Highway 417) in the Kanata suburb of Ottawa. Reports of soft-sediment deformation in outcrops of these strata immediately east of Terry Fox Drive led to Province of Ontario designation as an Area of Natural Scientific Interest (ANSI) in 1970. Such designation provides one of the few protective measures available for geologically significant sites outside Provincial Parks in Ontario. Re-examination in 2000 of these outcrops (Hilowle et al. 2000) resulted in recognition of the first-reported occurrences in Canada of quartz arenite containing stromatolites and biofilm structures (Fig. 2), thus greatly enhancing the ANSI significance of these outcrops. Subsequent research has confirmed the significance of this occurrence of siliciclastic stromatolites (Donaldson and Hilowle 2002, Donaldson et al. 2002, Donaldson et al. 2005a, b).

As a consequence of work commenced during the summer of 2008 to add lanes to the Queensway, all outcrops within the median at the Terry Fox ANSI site will be destroyed to provide space for two new lanes. On becoming aware of this planned highway widening the author, on behalf of Friends of Canadian Geoheritage (an organization sponsored by Canadian Geoscience Education Network), contacted key officials of the Ontario Ministry of Transport, Ontario Parks and Ontario Ministry of Environment. In a meeting with these officials in 2003, a ‘geosalvage operation’ was deemed feasible, subject to expression of interest from museums, universities and other organizations in securing blocks for public display. Representatives of Waterloo University, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, St. Lawrence University, Canadian Museum of Civilization, and the Town of Mississippi Mills all indicated interest in receiving one large specimen each from this site. With interest thus established, approval was granted for removal of up to 10 large blocks by jackhammer and hand-operated pry bars, rather than by blasting the rock. Recovery of these specimens will provide display material to illustrate structures documenting the role of cyanobacterial biofilm sheets in binding sand layers to create roll-up and desiccation structures in siliciclastic sand within an Ordovician intertidal environment. Had recent research not established the rarity of such distinctive structures, and Ontario Parks and Environment officials not been alerted to the pending road work, the outcrops containing these structures within the median of Highway 417 would have been completely destroyed, despite their ANSI designation.

With a heightened awareness of geo-heritage values stimulated by his work on the Metcalfe Geoheritage Park Project, Neil Carleton (Geography teacher, R. Tait McKenzie Public School in Almonte) immediately recognized the significance of a bedrock surface uncovered, in September 2008, within a block of his residence. The exposure was created during the start of development of a site for erection of a cluster of townhouses. Removal of a one-to-two-metre cover of Leda clay had revealed a unit of dolostone in the Paleozoic Oxford Formation replete with laterally linked domal stromatolites, some up to 4 m in diameter, with synoptic reliefs up to 60 cm (Fig. 3). Realizing that this exposure may present the best display of distinctive megastromatolites within an urban area anywhere in Canada, the developers were contacted to see if they would be amenable to preserving at least a small segment of this remarkable but potentially ephemeral exposure. It has the distinction of being the uppermost unit in the Oxford Formation, with relict patches of the overlying Rock-liffe sandstone preserved in several places at the top of the presently exposed area. Because there is no legislative recourse to obtain protection of newly uncovered geoheritage sites such as this one, preservation of a part of it hinges on the good will of the developers. Fortunately, the site developers are amenable to the possibility of preserving a small area containing several of the largest stromatolites. Depending on what accommodations can be provided to the developers (e.g. possible tax reduction and/or financial compensation for withdrawal of several townhouse lots from the planned development), there is reason to hope that a representative segment may be saved. Organizations that may offer assistance have been contacted (MMC, MVFN and Nature Conservancy of Canada); in the meantime, the ongoing operation continues to degrade the stromatolitic unit by mechanical fracturing and excavation.