The Montérégie hills need $150 million to ensure their protection. A coalition of 12 organizations unveiled a conservation plan on Tuesday that aims to “protect, restore and connect” each of the 10 mountains over the next five years.
The Coalition of Montérégiennes brings together Mounts Royal, Saint-Bruno, Saint-Hilaire, Rougement, Saint-Grégoire, Yamaska, Shefford, Brome and Mégantic, as well as the hills of Oka. Although not part of the same geological formation, Mont Rigaud is also a member of the coalition.
The group released its conservation plans for each of the mountains on Tuesday, as well as an overall plan to ensure connectivity between them. The Coalition des Montérégiennes predicts that a budget of $150 million will be needed to carry out the various measures in the program by 2027.
Many problems threaten the natural environments of these hills. For Pascal Bigras, Executive Director of Nature-Action Québec, the four main threats are invasive alien species, residential development, recreational tourism activities and overgrazing of flora by white-tailed deer.
“Despite everything that has been said about deer and their impact on natural environments, we are still at the same point,” underlines Mr. Bigras. The new plan calls for agreements to be reached with the Ministry of the Environment by 2025, to manage deer overpopulations.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, THE PRESS
Mont Mégantic and its observatory
Another important issue is the connectivity between the hills, points out Julien Poisson, director for southern Quebec at the Nature Conservancy of Canada. “We need to be able to protect land on the outskirts [des collines] to ensure better connectivity, especially for small fauna. »
Tourism also implicated
The Montérégie hills are also victims of their popularity. “These are open-air hospitals,” jokes Pascal Bigras, referring to the many studies that demonstrate the benefits of natural environments for health. “We need to better regulate public access to these environments to preserve them,” argues Julien Poisson.
If the amount requested is significant, Pascal Bigras says he sees a “great openness” of the different levels of government, especially since the COP15 on biodiversity held in Montreal last December.
The Montérégie hills are home to 40 exceptional forest ecosystems. 68% of amphibian and reptile species and more than 70% of bird species present in Québec are found there.
The coalition was created in September 2021, the result of the grouping of many conservation organizations so that their concerns “be brought with the same voice to municipal and governmental authorities”. In 2012, a report already indicated that five of the nine hills faced “high” or “very high” pressures for residential, commercial or tourist development.