Archive for category: Conservation News

The Canadian Wildlife Federation poster is free to download or to order as a paper copy.

We hear a lot about bees these days, how they are struggling to survive and how important they are to our food sources. Fortunately they are not the only pollinators. June 20-26^th was Pollinator Week which brought awareness to the plight and positive actions being taken on behalf of these very important insects and winged creatures.
Pollinators are yes bees but also beetles, birds, bats, butterflies, flies, moths and even some small mammals.
Some facts from the David Suzuki website: https://davidsuzuki.org/project/pollinators/

• Insects makes up 2/3 of all life on earth
• Insects are a key food source for birds and fish and play a vital role in forests and fields as decomposers.
• Over three-quarters of wild flowering plants and one-third of the food we eat depend on insect pollination. Think about it that is one out of every three bites of food we eat!
• More than 800 species of wild bees live in Canada.
• If we want to talk dollars and cents, pollinators add 233 billion dollars to the global economy, and honey bees alone are responsible for between 395 million dollars in agricultural productivity in Ontario. (https://pollinatorpartnership.ca/en/about-pollinators)

The problem stems from the loss of meadow & wildflower habitat, pollution and the use of chemicals.

• Turn your lawn into a garden
• Leave more lawn un-mowed
• Think about water for the insects. A bird bath or pond may be too deep. A saucer or lid filled with a few stones (connectivity and to help them have a landing place) with fresh water is a good idea.
• Support your local conservation organisations
• Speak to your municipal government about changing the dates they mow the ditches, or leaving more municipal land untended or better yet creating more community garden spaces.

The Massawippi Conservation Trust has 1200 acres under conservation. Not all of it is forest, there are some fields and streams with wetlands that play host to so many insects and wild things. If you go for a slow walk along the trails in Scowen Park you will see in the uncut fields, insects moving from flower to flower. We have seen at the park and on the conserved lands, Daisies, Buttercups, Herb-Robert, Two leaved Toothwort, Northern Starflowers, Clover, Orange Hawkweed (also known as Devil’s Paintbrush!)  to name a few! Precious biodiversity!

Nicolas Bousquet is the author of the following article. At the moment his major project that he is in charge of is a study of the wood turtle :This includes participating in the surveys; active protection of adult females in a gravel pit; nest protection; developing measures to protect all the turtles and maintaining the activity in the gravel pit; limiting the propagation of the Japanese knotweed in the designed wood turtle habitat to maintain a good quality of habitat as well as teaching classes to CEGEP and University students in the field about the wood turtles.

Despite a rainy and rather cold spring, the recent rise in temperature and the sunny weather are causing the turtles to become active. The warmth is a signal for them to come out of their hibernation in the riverbeds. Soon the three species of turtles, the painted turtle, the snapping turtle and the wood turtle of our sector will be visible during our outdoor activities or on the road! At first, they will be looking for some sunshine and will come out of the still very cold rivers and ponds to facilitate their thermoregulation.
Then, the laying period begins, which will last from the end of May to the beginning of July, but it is particularly in June that the majority of the turtles will be active for the laying. The adult females will seek sand and gravel, or a mixture of both, exposed to the sun to make their nest and bury their eggs. They may therefore go to the side of the road or onto footpaths or cycle paths to nest and thus become very vulnerable. In fact, every year we note turtle deaths along the edges of these structures, often adults, but sometimes also hatchlings that have emerged from their eggs. The passage from the aquatic environment to the terrestrial environment and vice versa for egg-laying is therefore an issue for the survival of adult females every year.
How can we help them to remain safe and sound during this period?

Simply by remaining vigilant! Whether you are driving, walking or cycling on structures bordering lakes, rivers, ponds or wetlands, you can remain vigilant to the presence of turtles and react appropriately in the event of their presence. You can slow down and let the turtle go on its way and warn other motorists of its presence for example. In an immediate emergency, you can help it cross, always in the same direction it was going. It is important not to put the animal back in the water or move it to another location. You can also take a photo and report its presence on the website www.carapace.ca.
It should also be noted that the wood turtle is present in a few rivers in the Eastern Townships and is designated as vulnerable by its provincial status. Populations have suffered a recent decline and some are recovering with difficulty. The wood turtle is particularly vulnerable to injury and mortality on roads and by agricultural and forestry machinery, especially because of its very terrestrial nature. Since it is the most terrestrial of our turtles in Quebec, it is exposed to these pressures for longer than other species. Moreover, the degradation of its habitat does not help its cause, nor does the presence of predators that destroy nests, such as raccoons! Despite the efforts of local organizations and actors, the situation remains precarious for several populations in the Eastern Townships. In fact, since turtles in general are slow growing and slow to reproduce, the recovery of these populations takes several years… when it is possible.
However, there is hope! Habitat quality is an essential element in the recovery of declining species and many local organizations are working to maintain and conserve these quality habitats. There are also several actions underway to better understand the specific threats affecting our wood turtles in order to better correct them!

Nicolas Bousquet, biol.,
Coordonnateur de projets terrain
COJESAF

Margot and her family moved to the Massawippi Valley permanently in 2002 however she had already established a love for the area long before when attending university and working in the area in the 1970s.

Unassuming and passionate, she is one of the founders of the Massawippi Foundation. Even before its legal inception, Margot played a key role in its establishment which now boasts approximately 1200 acres under its protection via the Massawippi Conservation Trust. The land, which is protected in perpetuity, has a current evaluation of over 4.3 million dollars and the Foundation has raised over 5 million dollars. For much of the last decade, Margot served as Chair and volunteer acting Executive Director at the same time – a term referred to as a “servant leader”. Today, Margot is President of the Foundation and a Trustee of the Trust. The conserved area we are talking about is the watershed of Lake Massawippi, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It contains pristine forests which have been identified as being of top ecological quality. Margot was among a small group of people who met over Thanksgiving weekend, 2010 to discuss the imminent threat of development on the magnificent forested ridge on the west side of the lake. One guest, David Rittenhouse took up the call and began to research how to create a conservation trust and a community foundation. By happenstance, Margot was drawn into the action after a chance meeting with David in the local depanneur. During the summer of 2011, they went door to door, spreading the word among friends to support the foundation during its infancy by providing seed money in order to purchase land and to explain the goals of the sister organizations. David made these visits while fighting advanced cancer and died in August that year but not before Margot visited him the evening before to promise him that the other founders would continue the work that he had begun as the Foundation’s first Executive Director.
Since then Margot has identified properties, helped negotiate land donations or sales and ushered the Trustees and owners to the table to sign transfers of land, a task that Margot compares to herding cats. She has also helped raise funds towards property acquisition and trail building and is a lead donor herself. She is a spokesperson and educator. She has given lectures, personally written hundreds of thank you notes, hosted fundraising events, even loaned her home in exchange for donations instead of rent.  Margot is a local, well respected authority on conservation in the region. She is called upon regularly by people wanting her guidance on how to establish a land trust.
Margot, along with the Board, believes in the importance of giving everyone access to nature. It was important to allow people to walk and benefit directly from the forest therefore it wasn’t long before two properties had trail networks. In the words of Margot Graham Heyerhoff, “The goal was not just to see this amazingly beautiful green mountain from afar while driving on Route 143  but for people to experience conservation from being ‘inside’ these protected forests”. Nothing has proven truer than in the last 2 years with the pandemic raging around us, people have benefitted from the trails, improving their physical and mental health.

The Massawippi Trust is under the conservation umbrella group of Appalachian Corridor. The biologists and specialists from the organisation have identified the top priority properties linking wildlife corridors which range from the United States through Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Margot is keenly aware of the positive impact on the wildlife regarding the connection between the properties and has worked nonstop to link contingent parcels together.
Aside from her various roles with the Foundation, including Chair, Acting Executive Director, and President, she also sits on the grants committee, fundraising committee, and now two new committees: Education and Farming.
As she says: “To support our vision for a green and prosperous Massawippi Valley, we are looking to expand our conservation efforts from only focusing on our rich forests to including various other types of ecologically vital lands.  The Massawippi Foundation and Massawippi Conservation Trust are joining the worldwide movement toward enhancing the agroecosystem resilience for sustainable agricultural production.  We feel that conservation also includes how we use our land – we will advocate for agro-environmental farming practices to keep our soil healthy, ways to preserve the biodiversity of insects, birds and plants, and ways we can all protect streams in order to improve the health of our lake, the health of our farms and their produce and ultimately the quality of life for all who live here.”
Today, as the Massawippi Foundation enters a new decade, it is expanding its mandate to develop educational programs for local school children, families and adults. It is also joining the regenerative agriculture movement. It will sponsor a research grant to identify the hot spots on the territory where farms are contributing to pollution. It will work with local organisations to promote new (old) farming techniques which are less invasive and can in fact help restore the quality of the soil, the crops grown, the farmers’ income and the environment.
Margot, originally a city person, has become totally invested in the local environment since her move to the Eastern Townships which she has expressed through her work with the Massawippi Foundation and the Massawippi Conservation Trust. She has learned about the environment and conservation through her passion for this corner of the world.  Margot has a creative edge about her (as a designer and an artist) and an active imagination for all kinds of projects and possibilities – many of which have already become realities.

Did you know that our region is home to some extraordinary farms and vineyards where the passion for organic farming practises is decades old? Caring for the environment and growing healthy food is nothing new for these farmers and vinters.
We are starting the first in our feature series with an article written by Caroline Chagnon, from Domaine de Bergeville in Canton de Hatley. Cheers!

While we are bottling the first wines of the 2021 vintage, the vines are finishing their long winter rest. Soon, they will be stripped of their protective canopies to catch the first rays of sunshine of the year.
Comfortably rooted on the slopes of the Massawippi Valley, our vines flourish in the highest viticultural region in Quebec: the Appalachian Highlands. The 250 m elevation creates a favourable contrast between hot days and cool nights. This temperature difference slows down the ripening of the grapes and preserves a remarkable acidity, which is crucial to the production of sparkling wine. Domaine Bergeville is the only vineyard in Quebec dedicated entirely to the production of traditional method sparkling wines. We believe that it is through the prism of double fermentation that the full potential of our northern climate, our soils and our hybrid grape varieties is best expressed. In other words: we bottle nordicity.
But beyond making wine, our concern is to shape an environment rich in biodiversity. Since the very beginning,

we have been working with organic and biodynamic viticulture. Thus, our vineyard has never known any synthetic product. Following a low-interventionist approach, every effort taken in the vineyard is done with the intention of making it a sustainable ecosystem and, ultimately, a self-sufficient organism. Aware that a vineyard is a monoculture, we have implemented several solutions to maintain an abundant and diversified environment. For example, we have deliberately planted different grape varieties on the same plot, interspersing vine varieties that flower at different times of the summer. Permanent green manures are grown in the inter-rows, which reduces soil erosion. At the edge of the plots, the wildflower patches and the forest are refuges for insects, amphibians and animals that contribute to the biodiversity of the vineyard. Each element of our ecosystem plays an essential role and contributes to its cohesion.
Our soil is our greatest asset. It is rich in silt, sand and pebbles, which makes it acidic and shallow, but also in the life that lives in it. Our intention is to constantly give back at least as much as it gives us. The application of biodynamic principles allows us to improve the health of the vineyard as a whole. Biodynamic herbal preparations help the immune system of the vines, preparing them to fight diseases and insects. In the long term, this practice allows us to reduce treatments and interventions to a minimum, reducing our impact on the environment. We fertilise our vineyard with composted manure from a local organic and biodynamic cheese factory. This takes much longer than chemical fertiliser to prepare, but it is deeper and more long term. Our efforts seem to be paying off as we have noticed an increased presence of earthworms, bacteria and birds in recent years, which is an empirical measure of strong soil life.
In order to work with nature and produce an authentic wine, adapted to our region, we have planted our vineyard with hybrid vines. These are a cross between wild North American and European vines and are better equipped than their European counterparts to deal with fungal disease pressure. Working with these hybrids allows us to significantly minimize the application of organic treatments, without jeopardizing our ability to produce quality wines. Frontenac, Acadie and St-Pepin, in particular, were selected for their robustness and organoleptic characteristics, but also for their rapid vegetative cycle.
Our philosophy remains the same in the cellar. Experience has taught us that healthy grapes require minimal intervention. Supported by healthy indigenous yeasts, the wine will have everything it needs to express the individuality it has taken a whole season to develop. Thus, handling and inputs in the winery are kept to a minimum. A minimal dose of sulphur is used at the beginning of the process, at the pressing of the grapes only. This natural winemaking process can be felt in the wines, which have an honest fruitiness, a freshness and a certain elegance.
For us, it’s all about reflecting the uniqueness of our northern vineyards and making wines with great precision and respect for our land.

Caroline Chagnon, Domaine Bergeville Communications Director