The United Counties of Prescott and Russell (french: Comtés unis de Prescott et Russell) are consolidated

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the Canadian province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

is L'Orignal. It was created as a result of a merger between Russell County and Prescott County in 1820. It is located in

Eastern Ontario Eastern Ontario (census population 1,763,186 in 2016) (french: Est de l'Ontario) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River. It s ...

, in the wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

, approximately 55 km (35 miles) east of the City of Ottawa.

Geography and nature

According to Statistics Canada, the county has a total area of . The United Counties are bordered by the Ontario/Quebec border to the east, and the Ottawa River to the north. It is crossed by the South Nation River that connects the Larose Forest and Alfred Bog. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has designated the Alfred Bog "a provincially significant wetland and an

Area of Natural and Scientific Interest Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an o ...

." Species of interest include the

palm warbler The palm warbler (''Setophaga palmarum'') is a small songbird of the New World warbler family. Description Measurements: * Length: * Weight: * Wingspan: Taxonomy The species comprises two distinct subspecies that may merit specific stat ...

northern pitcher-plant ''Sarracenia purpurea'', the purple pitcher plant, northern pitcher plant, turtle socks, or side-saddle flower, is a carnivorous plant in the family Sarraceniaceae. Description Like other species of ''Sarracenia'', ''S. purpurea'' obtains most ...

pink lady's-slipper ''Cypripedium acaule'' is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae. It is commonly referred to as the pink lady's slipper or moccasin flower. The specific epithet ''acaule'' means "lacking an obvious stem", a reference to its ...

cottongrass ''Eriophorum'' (cottongrass, cotton-grass or cottonsedge) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cyperaceae, the sedge family. They are found throughout the arctic, subarctic, and temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere in acid bo ...

bog elfin ''Callophrys lanoraieensis'', the bog elfin, is a species of Lycaenidae that is native to North America. Description The wingspan ranges from .bog copper ''Lycaena epixanthe'', the bog copper or cranberry-bog copper, is a North American butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. Adults like to sip drops of dew clinging to leaves and almost exclusively nectar on their host plant, cranberries. Because o ...

butterflies, and

ebony boghaunter The ebony boghaunter (''Williamsonia fletcheri'') is a species of dragonfly in the emerald family Corduliidae. It is found in southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States. Larvae occur in acidic bogs. Taxonomy The Ebony Boghaunter ...

dragonfly. It also hosts one of the most southerly herds of

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

. The bog is open to the public with a 272-metre (297 yard) boardwalk for nature walks.

Subdivisions

Municipalities and townships with major unincorporated communities: * Township of

Alfred and Plantagenet Alfred and Plantagenet is a Franco-Ontarian township in eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. Located approximately from downtown Ottawa at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the South Nation River. ...

(part of Prescott sub-region) ** Alfred **

Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in ...

* Municipality of Casselman (part of Russell sub-region) * Township of Champlain (part of Prescott sub-region) ** L'Orignal **

Vankleek Hill Vankleek Hill is a town in Champlain Township in Eastern Ontario. It has a population of 1,996. The town was named after Simeon Vankleek, a United Empire Loyalist who settled there near the end of the 18th century. The agricultural-based communi ...

* City of

Clarence-Rockland Clarence-Rockland is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell on the Ottawa River. Clarence-Rockland is located immediately to the east of Ottawa and is considered part of the Prescott and Russell Count ...

(part of Russell sub-region) ** Rockland ** Bourget * Township of

East Hawkesbury East Hawkesbury is a township in eastern Ontario, Canada, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell. Situated on the Ottawa River, its eastern boundary is the border with the province of Quebec. Communities The township comprises the village ...

(part of Prescott sub-region) * Town of

Hawkesbury Hawkesbury or Hawksbury may refer to: People *Baron Hawkesbury, or Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1727-1808), English statesman Places ;Geography *Hawkesbury Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada * Hawkesbury Island, Queensland ...

(part of Prescott sub-region) * Township of Russell (part of Russell sub-region) ** Embrun ** Russell * Municipality of

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

(part of Prescott and Russell sub-regions) ** Limoges ** St. Isidore

Historical townships

* Prescott County ** Alfred (now part of Alfred and Plantagenet) ** Caledonia (now part of The Nation) **

(still exists) **

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly ac ...

(now part of Champlain) ** North Plantagenet (now part of Alfred and Plantagenet) ** South Plantagenet (now part of The Nation) ** West Hawkesbury (now part of Champlain) * Russell County **

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

(now part of The Nation) **

Clarence Clarence may refer to: Places Australia * Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division * Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow * Clarence River (New South Wales) * Clarence Strait (Northern Territory) * City of Clarence, a l ...

(still exists as part of Clarence-Rockland) ** Cumberland (transferred to

Carleton County Carleton County (2016 population 26,220) is located in west-central New Brunswick, Canada. The western border is Aroostook County, Maine, the northern border is Victoria County, and the southeastern border is York County from which it was fo ...

, now part of the City of Ottawa) ** Russell (still exists)

Demographics

As a census division in the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, the United Counties of Prescott and Russell had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The median income for a household in the county was $78,748 and the median income for a family is $94,067. Males had an average income of $44,781 versus $33,240 for females.

Languages

In 2016 French was the sole mother tongue of 63.0% of its residents, and an additional 1.8% reported being natively bilingual in French and English.

Services

Responsibilities of the county government include social services (social assistance, child care, housing), county roads, paramedic / ambulance services and land-use planning. The county also operates the Prescott-Russell Residence, a home for the aged in Hawkesbury.

Libraries

There are many public libraries located in the county. The largest is th
Hawkesbury Public Library
which is located in

Health

There are two hospitals in Prescott-Russell
Hawkesbury and District General Hospital
in

, and th
Glengarry Memorial Hospital
a rural hospital in Alexandria, Ontario. Also, there is a medevac helicopter, in

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. The two hospitals have seen an increase in wait times due to an influx of patients from Quebec. The Government of Quebec has stalled efforts to build a second hospital in Western Quebec and it is not known when funding will be made available.

Transit

The counties are served by numerous commuter bus lines running to Ottawa, which are mainly operated by private contractors. The route numbers are part of the Rural Partners Transit Service of OC Transpo. Communities served include Rockland (with 10-12 trips in rush hour),

, Bourget, Casselman, Russell, and Embrun.

Police

The county is policed by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). There are two main police stations in Prescott and Russell; one in Embrun and one in Hawkesbury. In addition, there is a police station in Rockland that acts as a satellite to the one in Embrun.Ontario Provincial Police Website
The OPP is also in charge of patrolling Highway 417.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prescott And Russell United Counties, Ontario United counties in Ontario