The extension of Autoroute 25 risks causing the disappearance of 779 black maple trees, several hundred wild leek plants and 100,000 cardamine individuals, three species considered vulnerable in Quebec. This is revealed by the project notice filed by the Ministry of Transport on Wednesday at the Ministry of the Environment.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
For the organization Nature Québec, which works to protect natural environments, this major road construction project is “unacceptable”. “Professionals from the Ministry of the Environment have clearly indicated the rare status of the forest in which there are threatened and vulnerable species and the Ministry of Transport (MTQ) is still filing its project notice”, indignantly Cyril Frazao, executive director of the organization.
The document filed by the MTQ on Wednesday details the project to extend Highway 25, between the municipalities of Saint-Esprit and Sainte-Julienne, in Lanaudière. The route will extend over 9.12 kilometres. The “national type” road will consist of two lanes in each direction and a shallow ditch between the two carriageways. The speed limit will be 90 km/h. A path for cyclists, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles will be built along the new road, explains the project notice.
However, the right-of-way of this national road will cross two Exceptional Forest Ecosystems (EFE), those of Saint-Alexis and Saint-Esprit. “This stand constitutes a refuge forest for threatened or vulnerable species,” notes the MTQ about the two EFEs.
In addition to protected species such as black maples, a hundred other trees with precarious conservation status will have to be felled.
It is possible that this will cause the degeneration in the more or less short term of the exceptional forest ecosystem. [de Saint-Alexis]. The issue of biodiversity loss is therefore likely to suffer a significant impact.
Excerpt from the project notice
The extension project will also encroach on several wetlands. In the EFE Saint-Alexis, the right-of-way of the national road will pass through 25 of the 68 wetlands. In the EFE Saint-Esprit, “certain areas will have to be deforested or backfilled, causing permanent losses”, underlines the document.
“The deforestation of the right-of-way within an exceptional forest ecosystem, in which there are several species with status, constitutes an issue of loss of biodiversity at the local and regional scale”, notes the notice.
Contribution to urban sprawl
Mr. Frazao, from Nature Québec, is concerned about the biodiversity of the MRC de Montcalm. “The government is still launching a pro-auto message in which it has no consideration for the significant loss of natural environments of interest,” he laments.
Marc-André Viau, director of government relations at Équiterre, deplores the number of road expansion projects across the province. “With each of these projects, we eat away at the territory a little more. There is no project that is apocalyptic, but when you add them up, it becomes big. »
When we add the Autoroute 25 project to that of Autoroute 19, to that of the 104 in La Prairie with the tree frog which is threatened, to that of the widening of the 158 in the corner of Crabtree… it is the whole of the territory that is being disfigured. It is the whole of the territory that is being eaten away little by little.
Marc-André Viau, Director of Government Relations at Équiterre
Mr. Viau also maintains that the extension of Autoroute 25 will contribute to urban sprawl. “Inevitably, we will see new residential, commercial and industrial developments appear near this road and each of them will also encroach on wooded areas, natural areas and wetlands. »
In its project notice, the MTQ explains that its objective is to solve a “traffic problem” on Route 125 north of Saint-Esprit and that the Lanaudière transport plan has reported traffic in this sector since 1999. “We anticipate [en 1999] a strong increase in the population of around 37% from 1996 to 2016, a value well above the Quebec average of 12%. »
According to the MTQ document, the Ministry wishes to carry out the work to extend Highway 25 between the end of 2024 and the end of 2027. It will also organize a public consultation next October in Sainte-Julienne.