#2139 "Cloudy Dumoine Evening"

The 2018 CPAWS Dumoine River Art Camp was set up on Robinson Lake and I had some time to paint. I was attending the second CPAWS Art Camp in order to paint up a storm.

A girls camp had about a dozen young ladies on a trip down the Dumoine River. I met them at the bridge over the Grande Chute and saw them later as they paddled to the camp site on the large island opposite the CPAWS location. We had just finished supper and introductions. The clouds were calling. I headed down to the water front to paint what was left of the back edge of the thunderstorm that had cross the Dumoine. There were still a few canoes on Robinson Lake so I painted them in before they arrived at their island campsite.

CPAWS, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is dedicated to protect the biodiversity of the Ottawa Valley and surrounding areas through legislation and public education. One goal is to connect the Adirondack to Algonquin nature corridor to the wilderness of Quebec. The Dumoine watershed is critical to achieve this mission. Climate change is making such a north-south corridor vital. Wildlife is indeed reacting to global warming and I spoke with a family of Dumoine trappers who caught a very furry possum in 2017 for the first time ever. Possums are marsupials more accustomed to being located much further to the south in Virginia. Apparently possums are able to adapt to colder conditions as well. We spoke of these and other things over the campfire of the first Dumoine River Art Camp sponsored by CPAWS-OV.