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"The natural landscape is a patchwork of diverse habitats,
organisms, and relationships. This patchwork has many layers of
interrelated histories - geological, environmental, evolutionary,
and ecological - and is a dynamic expression of the current health
of the natural estate... It is the culmination of a long stream of
evolutionary history. The extinction of a species measurably
diminishes the spectrum of biological diversity in the habitat and
destroys a strand of history. Virtually all landscapes have been
compromised by human disturbance, virtually all natural histories
garbled by human histories... The conservation challenge to
present-day keepers of the land is to let the natural realm
continue to tell its own original story. "

Butterfly Gardening and Conservation by Stanwyn G. Shetler,
curator-emeritus of botany at the National Museum of Natural
History, Smithsonian Institution.

The Eardley Escarpment is a formation that marks
the southern boundary of Gatineau Park. Here two
important geological formations meet: the
Canadian Shield and the St. Lawrence Lowlands.
During the Wisconsin Glaciation all of Canada,
including this area, was covered by a thick layer of
ice. As the glaciers withdrew, the Atlantic Ocean
gradually spread over the land. 11 000 years ago
instead of farmers' fields one would see whales
spouting in the waters of the Champlain Sea, an
arm of the Atlantic Ocean. Today, the slightly salty
taste of the water in our well reminds us that we
live at the bottom of the ancient sea.

The Pink Lake is a natural gem of the Park. It is two lakes in
one: an ordinary lake and a meromictic lake, - below 13 metres
its water contains no oxygen. The lake is home to a marine fish,
a living reminder of the fact that thousands of years ago this
region was covered by the Champlain Sea. The Three-Spined
Sticklebacks were trapped in what was then salty water in the
Pink Lake. The transition from salt to fresh water took in the
meromictic lake some 3 000 years, and the Stickleback, this
living relic of ancient times, was able to adapt to fresh water.

The Eardley Escarpment has been classified as a conservation zone
within the Park because it harbours species of plants of which some
are relics of the Champlain Sea period and is home to a wide variety
of animals.

The Eardley Escarpment is home to 24 mammal
species. Most of the 2000-strong White-Tailed Deer
population in the Park spend winter months on the
slopes of the Escarpment. The mild weather
conditions they find here help them survive harsh
Canadian winters.

Approximately 230 bird species have been observed in
Gatineau Park, 15 of which are on Quebec or Canadian
endangered bird lists. The Pileated Woodpecker is the
largest woodpecker found in most of North America.
Although its population declined greatly with the clearing of
forests, the species rebounded in the middle of the 20th
century. The drumming that a Pileated Woodpecker makes
when boring characteristically rectangular holes in a tree
can be very loud, sounding like someone striking a tree
with a hammer. The bird can make such large holes in
dead trees that sometimes the holes can cause a tree to
break in half. Pileated Woodpeckers have been observed to
move their eggs which have fallen off the nest to another
site, which is a rare habit in other birds. The bird's call is a
wild laugh, similar to the Northern Flicker.

Gatineau Park is home to 54 mammal species, 14
of which are at risk in Quebec or Canada,
including the Timber Wolf. It used to be different in
the days gone by, as one can tell by the name of
this lake, - Lac des Loups, previously known as
Wolf Lake. The fertile lands around the lake were
colonized by Irish immigrants in the 1840s that
were followed by Francophone settlers several
decades later.