Quebec is considering an unprecedented solution to reduce deer populations in Montérégie: crossbow hunting.
This was indicated by the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, in a parliamentary committee in Quebec City on Wednesday, while confirming his intention to table “in the coming weeks” a regulation to allow hunting in certain national parks affected. by the overpopulation of deer.
“We will have to modify the regulations for the carrying of weapons, whether it is a pellet rifle, whether it is traditional weapons, to ultimately allow the slaughter of some of these heads. Quite simply because we lost control, “said the elected representative of the Coalition avenir Québec during a study session on the credits of the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife. and Parks (MELCCFP).
“It will probably be by crossbow, on the other hand, that the slaughter will have to be done,” he said, without giving further details.
Mr. Charette had announced his intentions to intervene by regulation last month, when questioned on the cases of overpopulation observed on the South Shore of Montreal.
Overcrowding
In various sectors of Montérégie, white-tailed deer are multiplying at breakneck speed. This is the case in Longueuil, where the uncontrolled presence of deer in Michel-Chartrand Park has generated a legal saga, but also in Boucherville, where citizens see more and more of these deer frolicking in the city.
The two municipalities prohibit the feeding of deer on their territory, but do not have jurisdiction over the national parks which border them.
The Quebec government has known for a few years now that Parc national des Îles-de-Boucherville and Parc national du Mont Saint-Bruno are struggling with cases of overpopulation of white-tailed deer. According to data provided to Duty by the Society of Outdoor Establishments of Quebec (SEPAQ), based on an inventory carried out in 2021, there are, for example, more than 300 deer in Parc national des Îles-de-Boucherville.
This means that the density is 30 animals per square kilometer, six times the number that this ecosystem could support. To reduce this growing herd to a viable level, and thus protect the vegetation and other species of this national park, it would be necessary to eliminate 250 deer.
A selective hunting “pilot project” had been mentioned in the spring of 2020, a few months before the start of the deer saga in Michel-Chartrand Park, in Longueuil. But it was never implemented. SEPAQ had nevertheless affirmed to the Duty twice in 2022 that an “intervention plan” was finally planned for the fall of 2022.
The Crown corporation had finally indicated recently that a “regulatory amendment” from the Quebec government was necessary to allow hunting.
According to data compiled by the MELCCFP, a total of 55,318 white-tailed deer were killed on Quebec territory in 2022, an increase of 17% compared to the 2021 hunting season.
Since the end of March, it has also been prohibited to feed these animals outside the hunting season. The objective: to prevent them from accumulating in urban environments “less favorable to their survival”.
With Alexander Shields