The City of Longueuil will capture chorus frogs on Wednesday which will be sent to the Biodôme, in order to be able to restart the work to extend a street, we learned The duty. This road project, which was initially stopped by a federal decree, will continue the destruction of “essential habitat” for the survival of this endangered species.
The breeding period of the chorus frog is currently underway and many of them have moved towards pools of water, essential to the life cycle of the species, which have formed on the site of the extension of the boulevard Béliveau. This cuts in two an important environment conducive to the survival of the small endangered amphibian.
The road project was first authorized in 2021 by the Legault government and it has already partially destroyed “critical habitat” of the chorus frog, a species protected under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. . The federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, had also issued an “emergency decree” in November 2021 to stop the work already well underway.
However, the City of Longueuil announced in July 2023 its intention to complete the road, affirming that this wetland could not be “restored as a whole”.
She subsequently obtained a federal permit allowing her to install, in the tree frog’s habitat, a “barrier” along the site of the future boulevard. This was to prevent amphibians from accessing the work area, but the formation of ponds meant that tree frogs settled there for the breeding period this spring.
Capture and relocation
As the City wishes to restart work to complete the 300 meter extension of the street, a tree frog capture operation will be carried out on Wednesday to leave the field clear for the road construction site which will perpetuate the destruction of this essential habitat.
Longueuil obtained the necessary authorization from the Quebec government in March to “capture amphibians with the aim of relocating them outside the work zone.” By email, it is stated that “even if there is water on the construction site favoring the presence of tree frogs, it is not a place suitable for the species and there is therefore a relocation operation”.
The captured amphibians will be sent to the Biodôme, the City confirmed in Duty. The chorus frogs will thus be integrated into the scientific breeding and reintroduction program piloted by the institution for several years.
The general director of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec, Alain Branchaud, deplores the decision to capture tree frogs. “We can say that we are in the process of getting rid of the tree frog on the site. I seriously think it would be better to let breeding end and let the young that will emerge in a few weeks return to the breeding habitats. »
According to him, the tree frogs chose this site because the conditions are favorable for this critical phase of their life cycle. By removing all amphibians from the area, we therefore risk canceling an entire breeding season for a species which is in dangerous decline.
Decline
After federal intervention in the matter in 2021, he judges that this new chapter constitutes a step backwards. ” All that for this. The government used the exceptional measure of the emergency decree to stop the work to extend Béliveau Boulevard and is now reversing course just as the tree frog is regaining its rights on the site. This is sadly unacceptable. »
According to a scientific opinion written by experts from the Quebec government in 2021, the new section of Béliveau Boulevard will destroy “a key crossing point” and “breeding habitats” of the species which are “particularly active”. The document specifies that the situation of this threatened species “represents an indicator of the loss of ecological goods and services provided by temporary wetlands and natural environments in urban and peri-urban areas”.
The chorus frog has already lost more than 90% of its habitat in Quebec, mainly due to urban sprawl. In a report on “threats” dated March 2021 and written by experts from the Quebec government, less than 25% of the populations present in Quebec will be able to survive, unless the growing threats are curbed.