The weekend storm was catastrophic for several hiking trails in the Laurentians, Lanaudière and Mauricie. It will take weeks of work to reopen certain trails and the small organizations that manage these territories will need arms and funding to repair the damage.
Posted at 5:30 p.m.
“Each year, we have storms with fallen trees, but this time, on the corridor north of the river, the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Mauricie, it really hurt, says Grégory Flayol, assistant general manager at Rando Québec. It’s catastrophic. There are paths that have completely disappeared, there are hundreds of fallen trees over a kilometer. »
In the Ouareau Forest Regional Park, for example, the Grande-Vallée sector has been “seriously affected”, comments Simon Degrandpré, development coordinator at the Matawinie Regional Parks Development Corporation. The National Trail area east of Highway 131 was also badly damaged.
“Hikers had to turn back because they could barely follow the trail,” he says.
Many sectors are still not very accessible, so it will be necessary to wait a little longer before having a clear idea of the overall situation.
Often, it is forests already weakened by logging that have suffered more, says Grégory Flayol. In what remains of these forests, the trails are protected by 30 meter strips of woodland.
“It’s not complicated, the wind rushes over these fields and hits the first wall on its way, the strip of trees on the edge of the trail,” he explains.
Trees fall right on the trail. We are losers twice in this story: because the environment we love and in which we evolve is clearly denatured by logging, and because there is collateral damage when there are meteorological events. specials like the one we just saw.
Grégory Flayol, Assistant General Manager at Rando Québec
Rando Québec has been recommending a protective strip of 100 meters on each side of the trails for quite some time now.
“We are a little disillusioned to have to struggle with that when hiking has never been so popular, continues Mr. Flayol. There is a bit of anger and frustration but we will roll up our sleeves, we are lucky to have a resilient community that is involved. We will do the work so that people can enjoy the hiking season as soon as possible. »
That’s good, it’s outdoor volunteering month, there are already activities organized in several regions.
But volunteers can’t do everything
“There are more important works, sometimes a little dangerous, notes Simon Degrandpré. Cutting trees, clearing them, requires people who have a certain level of experience with power saws. It will take weeks to clear all this. »
He notes that the Matawinie regional parks were already two weeks behind in preparing the trails because this year, the snow lingered in the forests for a long time.
Rando Québec intends to request an emergency program to help territory managers do the work.
“We are going to ask for an envelope from the Ministry of Education, and possibly from other ministries, but these other ministries have not necessarily listened to us until now, declares Grégory Flayol. I would be surprised if that changed, but it would have to. »
Before planning an outing in the forest in the coming weeks, hikers should consult the websites and facebook pages of land managers (such as regional parks and MRCs) to check the condition of the trails.