Euthanasia is the only solution to control the proliferation of white-tailed deer in Michel-Chartrand Park in Longueuil, concludes the report of the round table set up by the City in the wake of the controversy over their fate.
The document of about thirty pages, which Press obtained, also sounded the alarm on the advanced state of degradation of this green space and made some thirty recommendations to save it, many of which relate to deer.
“The only viable option in the short term to obtain lasting results is to proceed from 2022 to the reduction of the size of the herd by a method of capture and euthanasia in order to reach the support capacity of the park”, we can say. read in the report, which points out that the deer population has more than doubled in the past year.
From around thirty specimens last year, their population climbed to “more than 70”, according to the aerial inventory carried out in the spring, while the “support capacity” of the park calculated according to its area is between 10 and 15 deer.
White-tailed deer, in excess in the park, present a danger of spreading to park users of parasites, such as the blacklegged tick, a vector of the bacteria causing Lyme disease.
Extract from the report of the roundtable on ecological balance and the preservation of Michel-Chartrand park
In order to prevent their population from leaping again after the reduction of the herd, other measures should be considered, estimates the round table, referring to surgical sterilization and increased hunting in peripheral sectors, such as woodlands. du Tremblay.
The committee did not choose the option of relocating the deer, “for several reasons”, including the high risk of mortality and the stress created for the animals.
C’est donc un retour à la case départ, un an après la polémique soulevée par la décision de Longueuil d’abattre une partie des cerfs du parc, qui avait dégénéré au point où la mairesse de l’époque avec reçu des menaces de mort et qui avait mené à la mise sur pied de cette « table de concertation sur l’équilibre écologique et la préservation du parc Michel-Chartrand », composée d’experts, d’organismes du milieu et de citoyens.
La nouvelle mairesse, Catherine Fournier, s’était engagée en campagne électorale à respecter les recommandations de la table de concertation.
Autre problème : les humains
Outre la surpopulation de cerfs de Virginie, le parc Michel-Chartrand est aux prises avec de multiples problèmes dont les effets combinés « menacent aujourd’hui l’équilibre écologique du parc », s’inquiète la table de concertation, qui souligne la nécessité d’actions simultanées.
Le rapport évoque « les effets dévastateurs de l’agrile du frêne sur la forêt » et la propagation d’espèces exotiques envahissantes, un problème décuplé par la présence des cerfs, qui ne les broutent pas et leur préfèrent les plantes indigènes.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Affiche informative installée au parc Michel-Chartrand
Mais les humains qui visitent le parc – dont la fréquentation a augmenté significativement depuis le début de la pandémie – portent aussi une part de la responsabilité, note le rapport.
La marche hors des sentiers balisés, qui détériore la forêt, et l’alimentation pourtant interdite des animaux sauvages sont des comportements aux conséquences importantes.
Les milieux naturels […] are degraded to the point that they can no longer regenerate.
Extract from the report of the roundtable on ecological balance and the preservation of Michel-Chartrand park
Overabundance of geese
Parc Michel-Chartrand is also faced with an overabundance of Canada geese, a bird that consumes nearly 4 kg of plants and generates up to 0.9 kg of faeces daily, notes the report, which notes health problems. in several sectors of the park, in particular that of the three lakes.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
The growing population of geese also has an impact on the ecological balance of Michel-Chartrand Park.
As geese “fiercely defend their nesting sites,” their increasing numbers increase the risk of injury to park users, especially young children, the report warns.
The round table also recommends that the City continue its program of scaring geese and sterilizing their eggs, which gives good results, but stresses that the participation of the neighboring golf course Le Parcours du Cerf would increase its effectiveness. .
Control of invasive vegetation, such as buckthorn, Japanese knotweed and warbler, as well as white-tailed deer and Canada geese, “is a prerequisite. sine qua none to the restoration of the park’s ecological balance ”, estimates the round table.
An unrecognized vocation
The round table recommends reviewing the mode of governance of Parc Michel-Chartrand, deploring the fact that its conservation vocation “is not clearly recognized and affirmed by the City of Longueuil”. Its grievances are numerous: responsibilities distributed between several municipal services with different missions and objectives, a conservation plan dating from 2008 and which is slow to be updated, authorized uses incompatible with a vocation for the conservation of natural environments, etc. The committee calls on the City to make the population aware of the ecological value of the park, the threats to which it is subjected and the importance of intervening quickly and in a sustainable manner to preserve it.
1 to 3: number of fawns that a female deer can produce each year, which is fertile in her first year of life
13: number of meetings held by the round table on ecological balance and the preservation of Michel-Chartrand park
Source: report of the round table on ecological balance and the preservation of Michel-Chartrand park