Woodland Caribou of the North Shore | Quebec plans cuts in protected areas

Quebec is weighing the possibility of allocating to the forest industry volumes of wood to be harvested in sectors that are nevertheless targeted by forest-dwelling caribou protection measures, noted The Press.

Forest areas that are “sensitive” for the species are thus found among the “potential intervention sectors” identified in the logging planning of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MRNF) for the period 2023-2028, in particular on the North Coast.

They could therefore be cut despite the “interim measures” which were to protect them from any logging pending the development of the caribou recovery strategy, which the Legault government has undertaken to deliver next June.

These protection measures were introduced because these massifs offer “high quality habitat” for caribou, are “little disturbed” or represent a “strong potential for restoration”, as the MRNF itself admits, on its website. .

Cuts are notably under study in the sector of the Pipmuacan reservoir, where The Press observed caribou last spring, which the Independent Commission on Woodland and Mountain Caribou called for protection without delay in its report published last summer.

The Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, however, denies that this is the case, her cabinet asserting that the cuts envisaged “affect sectors which are outside those allocated by the interim measures”, although his own department’s maps show otherwise.

The MRNF’s logging planning, called “operational integrated forest management plans” (PAFIO) in forestry jargon, has been the subject of regional public consultations since the fall.

“A bit embarrassing”

The possibility of logging in sectors frequented by caribou comes at a time when certain players in the forestry sector are pressuring Quebec to postpone for five years the protection measures that could lead to a drop in the volumes of wood harvested.

“There is a convergence of elements that seem to align,” observes biologist Pierre Drapeau, professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal and co-holder of the UQAT-UQAM Chair in Sustainable Forest Management.

However, if the industry is often perceived “as being the big bad guy in this, it is the government that has full control”, he recalls, believing that it would thus be “a little embarrassing” that the Ministry of Forests goes ahead with cuts in areas that the Ministry of Environment plans to protect permanently.

The situation gives the impression that the Ministry of Forests is trying to harvest as much wood as possible before implementing protective measures for the caribou, also believes biologist Martin-Hugues St-Laurent, professor at the University of Quebec in Rimouski and caribou expert.

“That’s what we’ve been doing for 25 years,” he says, noting as an example that the situation of the Pipmuacan caribou herd was not as precarious 10 years ago.

Ammunition for Ottawa

Possible cuts in protected areas would give the federal government ammunition to intervene by decree to protect caribou, says Pier-Olivier Boudreault, director of conservation at the Quebec section of the Society for Nature and Parks (SNAP Quebec). .

“The Pipmuacan sector is clearly one of the first sectors where the federal government could intervene,” he said, pointing out that the caribou herd that lives there is very threatened and that the Innu of Pessamit propose to create a protected area in this sector.

The situation also worries Nature Quebec, says forest engineer Marie-Ève ​​Desmarais, member of the organization’s forest commission.

“One would have thought that the Ministry would have avoided these sectors, at least until the unveiling of the strategy [de rétablissement du] caribou,” she said, regretting that the government “takes away room for manoeuvre.”

The Innu Council of Pessamit did not wish to comment, so as not to harm ongoing discussions with the MRNF, as did the office of the Minister of the Environment, the Fight Against Climate Change, Wildlife and des Parcs, Benoit Charette.

Areas of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Gaspésie also targeted

Logging is also planned in sensitive sectors of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, where the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests is planning “special management plans” aimed at harvesting wood in sectors affected by the tortrix. spruce buds.

This is the case within the limits of the Lake Kénogami protected area project, as well as in a sector adjacent to the Péribonka River protected area project, the precise contours of which have not yet been defined.

“I find it absurd once again that the Ministry is rushing to cut in sectors that are under discussion to potentially become protected,” says Pier-Olivier Boudreault, from the Quebec section of the Society for Nature and Parks (SNAP Quebec).

Worse still, in the case of the Péribonka River, the sector concerned was subject to an interim protection measure until 2019, which the Legault government abolished, despite the fact that the most recent inventory had confirmed the presence caribou there.

“We would like there to be a moratorium on logging that affects sensitive caribou habitat until the recovery strategy is published,” says Marie-Ève ​​Desmarais of Nature Québec.

The Department had also planned a special harvest plan for 2022 in the range of the mountain caribou in Gaspésie.

Logging aimed at salvaging wood affected by the spruce budworm is possible in a sector targeted by interim caribou protection measures, in this region, but the literature suggests that it is harmful to the animal, underline M^me Swamps.

She recalls that a moratorium on logging in deer habitat, called for by scientists and various stakeholders in the Gaspé, was recommended by the Independent Commission on Woodland and Mountain Caribou.