(Quebec) The Legault government announces that it is delaying the tabling of a strategy for the recovery of woodland caribou. Rather, he launches an independent commission on the subject, a cold shower for environmentalists.
Two scenarios will be studied by the commission headed by Nancy Gélinas, dean of the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics at Laval University and professor-researcher in forest economics. The first will be made up of “possible solutions proposed by the regional operational groups”. The other scenario will be “without additional impact on wood supplies”, ie it will not reduce the amount of forest available to logging companies.
Remember, the woodland caribou has been listed in the Quebec register of endangered species since 2005. “The time has come to act and realize that most of the science behind caribou recovery, we have it”, deplores Alain Branchaud, the director general of the Quebec wing Society for Nature and Parks (SNAP-Quebec).
Several actions could be taken now to help herds of caribou threatened in particular by logging, he said. For example, the closure of forest roads, the protection of old-growth forests and the creation of large-scale and interconnected protected areas.
“We have been accumulating for 20 years an astronomical amount of documentation, we have a lot of structure, plan, placemats, action plans, but very little action,” he laments. “The time has come to implement actions that will have positive impacts on woodland caribou. The time for discussion is over. ”
Win time
In an open letter published Monday in Press, the Innu Council of Pessamit denounced this decision in advance. “The government’s strategy is simple, to save time by constantly postponing the filing of its protection plan so that the decline of the species continues. Then all that remains is to put the few remaining individuals in enclosures. This strategy has worked very well with the populations of Val-d’Or, Charlevoix and Gaspésie, ”lamented the authors of the letter, including Jérôme Bacon St-Onge, Vice-Chief of the Council.
They are concerned about the disappearance of the Pipmuacan caribou population north of Forestville. “Already, the survival of the fawns is insufficient to ensure the persistence of this population. The disappearance of this population would cause a considerable decline in the continuous range of the species in Quebec, leaving the field open to extract as much wood as possible ”, they deplore in the letter.
They add that the caribou is a sacred species for the Innu and many other First Nations. “The decline of the woodland caribou has a huge impact on our culture and our identity,” they say.