Behind the scenes | Wintering

A little-known aspect of the park is certainly the winterization of the facilities.

Discover one of the highlights of the year for the employees of the land development department.

Several steps are required to prepare our facilities and grounds for the cold season. Altogether, a dozen employees work at a hectic pace over several weeks to accomplish all these tasks. To make the most of summer, proper winterization is essential!

First, the October weather is assessed and a closing date is set. The boat rental calendar is also studied to find out more about the last groups to visit us and their needs. Based on the results of these analyses, a timetable is put in place, and the team determines their work schedule to maximize the number of tasks and get everything done before the cold weather arrives. A marathon begins!

The main steps

• Cleaning up our summer facilities for proper spring storage.
• Transporting boats from various park sites (Laval, Boisbriand, Rosemère and Saint-Eustache) to our storage site in Auteuil.
• Towing the park's many docks to the Berge du Garrot.
• Inspecting our boats to identify any repairs needed in the spring.
• Storage of furnishings at the Laval site, such as tables, umbrellas and chairs.

Our Land Development team:

• Francis Martineau
• Éric-Martin Vidal
• Nicholas Valiquet-Berthelet
• Michel Bilodeau
• Jonathan Gauthier
• Christopher Nicastro
• Delphine Plante
• Manuel Riveti
• Hughes Saint-Pierre
• Louis Thibault
• Arielle Belisle

**Special thanks to Louis Thibault and the land development team for the photos, but also for taking time out of their busy schedules to contribute to this article!

Our biologists and customer service are also busy...

Our conservation and education team is also involved in the winterization of the park. Last week, we saw them maintaining our landscaping on the Laval site so that everything looks beautiful in the spring. Many volunteers helped us with this task. In addition, the laboratory team is quietly preparing the hibernation of 4 of our resident turtles at the Centre de réhabilitation des tortues du Québec. You'll be fascinated to read a blog entry on this subject soon! Last but not least, customer service is hard at work cleaning up the boat rental facilities in the Exploration Center. Once the area has been emptied of the many paddles and personal flotation devices, it will be used, among other things, to store our Christmas trees, which will be on sale to benefit the CRTQ on December 2. More details to come!