Citizens at the Front against Quebec

(Saint-Zénon) The sun shines on Lake Crystal. Its turquoise waters sparkle. But the beautiful summer day does not erase the concern of a group of citizens gathered on its bank. The Ministry of Natural Resources has authorized the cut of most of the forests that belt it, even if it poses a “significant threat” for this type of body of water.

“Remove your pool filter, and water will become green. This is exactly what they are going to do, ”drops Marc Demers. When he learned the cups to come, the one who has been installed on the shores of Lake Crystal for 47 years immediately warned his neighbors. An association of the lake was created, and the vacationers tried to convince the ministry to retreat, without success.

Their arguments are numerous. A protected area project has been submitted and is supported by the MRC. It was proposed within the framework of the Nature 2030 plan, piloted by the Minister of the Environment, Benoît Charette. The territory has high ecological value. It is prized by lovers of scuba diving and water sports, such as kayak and paddle board.

And above all, Lake Crystal is very fragile. He is exceptionally poor in nutrients – experts say hyper oligotrophic – and that’s what makes his water so clear. Then this head lake, powered by mountain sources and rainwater, is renewed very slowly.

It did not convince the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MRNF), which still wants to authorize cuts in the winter of 2026-2027. However, his own experts determined, in a 2013 opinion, that Lake Crystal and its watershed constitute a “wildlife site” and that “the most important threats for this type of lake are the massive deforestation of the watershed, the construction of roads and the development of the vacation”.

The MRNF replies that this opinion does not constitute a proper study, and that the construction of winter paths is provided “to avoid erosion and leaching of sediments in rivers and lake”.

Sediments

“If they cut, in the first thunderstorm, all the dried foam and the sediments will pick up in the lake,” drops Jasmine Gagnon, member of the lake defense committee. She had had a chalet there for 23 years, which she recently sold. But she still continues the fight. “I do this for future generations,” she drops.

With slim soil, at Cran de Rocher, the forest will put decades to recover. And the lake, they fear, will lose what makes its singularity.

Joanie Ducharme, president of the Nymph ZEC, supports them.

The mission of ZECS is in particular to maintain wildlife and facilitate access to the territory. M^me Ducharme wonders who will enjoy the beach of exceptional quality after the forest cuts.

Other similar cases

The case of Lake Crystal is far from unique. Alain Branchaud, CEO of Société for Nature and Parks du Canada, Section Québec (SNAP Québec), estimates that nearly 400 protected areas projects, solicited by the Ministry of the Environment, are threatened by cuts. “They are located on public lands where there can be forest cuts. Some are threatened in the short term, others with longer maturity. But as long as there is no protection, it will be necessary to fight, ”he says.

About ten kilometers away, a fight was also lost. For the saved forest project, it’s too late. In mid-July, the multifunctional slaughterers of the St-Michel sawmill mowed a forest a few tens of meters from chalets by the Saint-Stanislas lake.

The all-terrain vehicle raises dust on forest paths. On board, two local residents, Jocelyn Laliberté and Pierre-Olivier Deland, show us the cuts and their proximity to the dwellings. Despite the desire of citizens to protect this sector to highlight outdoor activities such as hiking and snowmobile, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests authorized a cup in a territory of 37 hectares, near the Saint-Stanislas and Canoe-D’écorce lakes and the hundred chalets that line them.

“When I announced the news to my son, he began to braille,” says Pierre-Olivier Deland, who is the father of three young children. [Mes enfants] are all the time outside. The trushers were originally to operate up to a few meters from the dwellings. Citizen mobilization made it possible to protect a path in the forest and to increase this “buffer zone” at 60 meters.

The wind whips the face of the two men, aboard the all-terrain vehicle which in turn crosses forests and cutting areas, strewn with trees, returned by heavy machinery. “We go from a complete forest to this setting in a few days,” says Pierre-Olivier Deland.

Important industry

The south and west of Lake Saint-Stanislas have already been harvested in 2018 and 2019. “They have no other sectors where going to cut, so they go in people’s prices,” says Suzanne Filteau, another mobilized citizen.

The mayor of the municipality, Karl Lacouvée, is torn between the dissatisfaction of citizens and the importance of the forest industry. Nearly 100 people, out of 1,717 inhabitants, still work in this economic area “very important for the region”. And the industry is faced with a headwind: the St-Michel sawmill announced on August 2 that it temporarily suspended its activities: 250 employees found themselves unemployed. In return, “the cuts are returned in our lessons. It is unacceptable, ”says the mayor.

Resigned, the owner of the Auberge Le Cabanon, Michel Mills, however hopes that the fate reserved for the protected area of the saved forest will serve as others. “For us, here, it’s too late. But talking about Lake Saint-Stanislas will be used to prevent law 97, prevent massacres and, I hope, increase the buffer areas around lakes and residences, ”he drops.

The most deplorable, underlines Alain Branchaud, of the environmental organization Snap Québec, is that these projects were born from an approach launched by the Ministry of the Environment, which required the help of communities to identify sectors allowing it to reach its target of 30 % of the protected territory in 2030. “And even if tomorrow morning, they were all accepted, we will not have yet reached the target”, underlines Branchaud.

Here, the left arm of the state comes to get rid of what the right arm has done, deplores Mr. Branchaud. He even believes that the MRNF, which has in hand all the information on these territories that citizens want to protect, weighs on the accelerator to collect trees before the Ministry of the Environment ends its analyzes.

The MRNF brings a nuance and says it does not prioritize “the sectors targeted by protected areas projects to collect volumes”. His experts, he explains, rather plan forest development according to the maturity of wood, the history of interventions, the needs of the industry and the availability of the territories. It was agreed, indicates the department of communications of the ministry, that the territories targeted by the hundreds of projects of protected areas could be harvested until they officially obtain the status of protected area.