Environment

(Sorry for technical problem with the English names of some pages in the menu.)

En introduction de sa présentation, Monsieur Sébastien Poncelet rappelle que le Comité consultatif en environnement (CCE) a proposé l'élaboration d'une politique environnemental, fin 2021, et en a alors reçu le mandat. Deux ans de travail, d’abord sous la gouverne du premier coordonnateur en environnement, monsieur Benjamin Plourde, puis sous celui de son successeur actuel, ont permis cette réalisation, accompagnée d’un imposant document. En une vingtaine de planches, M. Poncelet nous présente aujourd’hui, plus schématiquement, les objectifs stratégiques retenus dans cette démarche.
La formule d’ateliers retenue pour cette consultation a été reproduite dans la participation par visioconférence, de sorte que, après la présentation des planches, la vingtaine de participants, via l’application Zoom, ont été répartis en quelques sous-groupes. Le soussigné s’est retrouvé, après quelques errements, avec trois autres résidents du lac Saint-François-Xavier. Le nombre de personnes présents dans la salle Gougeon du pavillon Saint-Michel nous est inconnu.
Nous reçûmes comme directives de surligner les points énumérés dans le document selon la priorité que nous leur accordions. Les trois niveaux de priorité offerts se distinguaient par une couleur propre (par ordre décroissant : 1=vert, 2=jaune, 3=rouge); tandis que le bleu indiquait un point à modifier, avec commentaires. Des difficultés pour maîtriser la technique, sans doute, nous ont plutôt amenés à transmettre notre pointage et nos remarques dans la plage pour les commentaires. Elles nous ont aussi empêché d’éplucher jusqu’à la fin le document…
Tous les points nous ont paru important; mais il nous fallait quand même en prioriser l’importance à nos yeux. Vous trouverez nos commentaires dans le document ci-joint, préparé sur le vif par notre rapporteuse, Mme Root :
Rencontre Politique Environnementale, samedi 18 janvier 2025.

Groupe : Ardis Root, Anne-Claude Bonin, Carl Chapdelaine, Céline Bouchard
Nous sommes résidents de Montfort, Lac St-François Xavier

Protection des milieux hydriques et humides

• Priorité-points 1 et 2, Point 3 et 4 sont des priorités 2 très important mais on comprend que c'est plus difficile à réaliser.
• Le volet éducation est très important -points 5, 6 priorité 3 - On croit que les gens sont soucieux de l’environnement mais ne savent pas quoi faire.
• Le point sur les castors peut être priorité bleue. Nous sommes d’avis qu’il faut surveiller.
• Limiter nombre de résidences est une priorité bleue pour Lac St-François-Xavier car nous n’avons pas vraiment de terrain en développement chez nous (ou peu).
• Priorité 2- sensibilisation au rôle des bateaux à moteur. Nous aimerions instaurer une règle concernant les visiteurs et peut-être une limite pour des bâtiments locatifs
• les deux derniers points sont priorité 1 pour nous. L’érosion est un enjeu


Conservation de la nature
• On priorise le point 1 le corridor, pour nous notre priorité est sur le lac.
• Priorité 1 règles sur l'usage des pesticides, et l’usage des bois traités sur le lac (ex : quais)
• Un plan de protection sur les feux de forêts devrait être une priorité. Nos maisons sont en bois, et sommes entourés de conifères.
• La biodiversité est importante mais, nous croyons qu'il n’y a pas d'enjeux sur ce point à ce moment-ci, donc non prioritaire.

Autres
• L'érosion est prioritaire 1, notre lac est très impacté par l'érosion.
• Miniers, est-ce un enjeu réel pour notre municipalité? Nous ne croyons pas que ce soit prioritaire.
• La construction sur les hauts de montagnes n’est pas un enjeu chez nous
• Il devrait y avoir des initiatives pour sensibiliser les propriétaires aux matériaux non-polluant (ex : toit en tôle et non en bardeaux d’asphalte)
• Électrification : on trouve le document un peu timide. Nous sommes d’avis que la municipalité devrait privilégier des véhicules moins énergivores pour sa flotte. Pour la population, nous sommes tous d’accord sur le fait de faciliter l’usage de véhicule électriques, par contre, pour 2 d’entre nous il s’agit d’une priorité 1 et pour les 2 autres, d’une priorité 3.
• Nous sommes d’avis qu’il devrait y avoir un programme qui vise à réduire, voire interdire les moteurs 2 temps sur les plans d’eau. On devrait également inciter l’usage de moteurs électriques sur les plans d’eau.
• On est d’accord avec protéger le ciel étoilé, une règlementation sur l’usage de lumières extérieures devrait exister.


Ne faut-il pas encore s’interroger sur les moyens de compiler et d’intégrer les résultats de cet exercice? Y a-t-il une méthode scientifique pour ce faire? Et quelle valeur donner aux évaluations de priorité accordées par les participants à la consultation? Auront-ils pu situer chaque élément de la stratégie dans son contexte, tel qu’ont tenté de le présenter ses auteurs; et faire abstraction de tout intérêt personnel?
L’évaluation qu’ils en ont faite nous assure-t-elle du choix le plus approprié des mesures à implanter pour atteindre les objectifs visés? N’est-ce pas au moment de faire appel à la bonne volonté, ou d’imposer une législation correspondante à ces mesures, que l’évaluation des priorités par le citoyen va concrètement se matérialiser; comme lorsque le promoteur immobilier doit se plier aux critères du PIIA?
Mais, ce projet de politique environnementale est porté par la vision et la volonté du conseil. Par la consultation, ses membres auront pu obtenir une première évaluation de son approbation, sinon par tous les citoyens, du moins par ceux qui ont montré leur intérêt en y participant. Ils décideront d’en tenir compte ou d’aller de l’avant avec leur propre conception et connaissances, si elles diffèrent des résultats obtenus. Ou bien, le projet, en partie ou dans son ensemble, garnira le carnet de promesses des candidats à la prochaine élection municipale.

Par Carl Chapdelaine

The document presenting Wentworth-Nord's draft environmental policy, “Agir en fonction de l'environnement, c'est naturel”, written by the members of the Comité consultatif en environnement (CCE), is worthy of an urban development plan. The well-structured document is the result of an impressive amount of work by the environmental coordinator and the CCE, as well as input from council members, the administration and the organizations consulted.

Following public consultation on January 18, the final statement of this project will have to be validated and adopted by the council to become feasible. Precisely, “Preserving the natural character of the municipality ... implies a political vision aimed at limiting urbanization and encouraging the conservation of natural habitats, reducing pollution and promoting sustainable lifestyles”. This orientation relies on the channelling of development induced by free enterprise and has not only financial implications. While laudable, the balance between the two movements, which tend to clash, will be a major challenge. Yet the authors of the project assert that innovation and sustainability go hand in hand.

The document begins with an in-depth overview of the territory, including its geography, population, vocation, etc. It offers the same approach for each of the selected issues. These presentations are certainly a reminder of a series of elements that the citizen of Wentworth-Nord may already have assimilated, and he or she may simply want to skim over them.

The presentation provides the rationale for each major policy direction. The last of these orientations, that of informing, mobilizing and encouraging citizen action on the environment, presents a number of concrete measures that we hope will find favour.

As with the duel between development and preservation, the issues prioritized in the draft policy offer as many confrontations as possible between human action and environmental protection. For each of these issues, we find the motivation for the intervention advocated.
The authors have then grouped the actions they hope to take over the next decade under different objectives. With the help of tables, maps and histograms, they provide us with an impressive list of actions identified for each issue and the context in which they fit. This section makes up the bulk of the impressive document.

The project does indicate the need to evaluate and valorize the natural resources present, but does not specify how. There is little data, for example, to measure the impact of development on the environment, or even to quantify its components and the importance we attach to them. Other measures are more precise and involve urban planning regulations, such as increasing the size of areas dedicated to conservation, or creating ecological corridors.

In this respect, artificial intelligence will soon provide an indispensable tool for the public sector. The latter will mandate a specialized firm, equip itself with resources or borrow from future models to carry out, by this means, value analyses, guided by human appreciation, of the elements that make up our environment. Initially, these elements will have to be evaluated quantitatively, as in a risk analysis, or for the already very complicated task of determining the carrying capacity of a lake, or for the weighting of criteria in a PIIA. Then, an appropriate algorithm could produce a coherent assembly. Here again, we can imagine the need for citizen consultation. Constant updating of environmental policy measures is therefore to be expected.

Like any document of this magnitude, it calls for a keen interest in environmental issues on the part of those who undertake to read it. Failing that, it seems to us that a summary*, in this case generated by artificial intelligence, could encourage as many people as possible to take part in the forthcoming consultation on this draft policy. Too brief, however, this summary will not allow the reader to penetrate the document, to follow the authors' entire approach, or to enter into the details of the project.

In order to be able to interact effectively during the planned consultation, or even to become involved in the actions proposed to citizens, it would therefore be to the participant's advantage to familiarize himself with the content of the document and, eventually, to position himself in relation to the issues identified, the objectives set and the proposals for achieving them. However, it might be preferable for the presentation accompanying the consultation to be limited to a summary of its content. We can also imagine that each workshop, in the Salle Gougeon in Saint-Michel, would deal with one or other of the issues put forward, and that the virtual audience could be invited to divide up in the same way. On this occasion, a workshop should be reserved for the English-speaking community.

What's more, the scope of this draft policy is such that, even over the ten years planned for its realization, we can't expect it to be fully realized. If it can rally the support of citizens and councillors, however, this planning instrument will dictate to them, as well as to urban planning departments and the administration as a whole, the path to follow.

For this consultation, however, we shouldn't expect miracles in terms of citizen interest or participation via videoconferencing. It is on the floor of Salle Gougeon, with the formation of participatory workshops, and provided that a significant representation of the population attends, that relevant interventions will prevail. And to combine this formula with that of a virtual audience, and even with some interactive tool, is an audacious gamble.In this winter season, when two-thirds of residents - vacationers - are not in Wentworth-Nord, or even necessarily receptive to what's going on there, the council's choice is still surprising. For a ten-year plan, why risk limiting the appeal to everyone?

Will the recording be accessible? Will the presentation end up on the municipality's website? Wouldn't it be possible to approach an independent journalist and prepare an interview with the environmental coordinator, highlighting the key points of the policy and making it available on YouTube? Such interviews on community television networks can generate a great deal of interest.

But, as we've seen from previous meetings between the municipality and lake associations, organized by the municipality's environmental services, these consultations also include a good deal of presentation of the actions carried out by the said services. They are coupled with a call for the participation of these associations and citizens in their implementation. Their agenda seems to be linked above all to the municipality's administrative process.

* Wentworth-Nord's environmental policy for 2024-2034 aims to preserve and protect the municipality's natural environment.

It is based on four pillars: preservation of the natural character, sustainable development, enhancement of natural spaces, and recognition of the territory's assets.

The policy was developed by the Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) and will be implemented by the Urban Planning and Environment Department.

The main issues addressed include protection of water and wetlands, nature conservation, protection of biodiversity, waste management, sustainable construction, protection of the night sky, adaptation to climate change, and promotion of active transportation.

Specific actions are planned for each issue, such as bringing septic systems into compliance, creating conservation areas, raising awareness of biodiversity, reducing waste, and promoting eco-responsible building practices.

The policy will be reviewed every ten years, with an annual follow-up of actions taken.

The active participation of citizens and local associations is essential to the success of this policy.

ByCarl Chapdelaine

“Eco-corridors are the combination of terrestrial and aquatic passages that link conservation nodes Éco-corridors laurentiens By urbanizing, spreading out, linking development hubs with a road network and appropriating lakes and waterways, even a sparsely populated municipality like Wentworth-Nord is eating into the natural environment and hindering the movement of wildlife. This disrupts the ecological balance on which the fate of many plant and animal species more or less depends.

Some animals are more likely to be affected by this encroachment on their habitat, such as the wolf, which fears man, with the consequences for the interaction that must reign between these carnivores and their prey, as well as for their respective distribution on the territory. We have therefore developed the concept of wildlife corridors, to enable the movement of all species for which this factor may be decisive.

Of course, the creation of protected areas or, as in Wentworth-Nord, the designation of public land as such, could facilitate the creation or maintenance of these ecosystems.

In the 2024 amendment to the municipality's urban plan, under the item Land Conservation, it was prescribed that a significant portion of Wentworth-Nord's territory would be protected from development, including nature reserves and crown lands. This was also marked by a resolution of the municipal council, at its meeting of April 17, to, among other things, facilitate the movement of wildlife or prevent misuse of the territory, such as by mining claims.

In the preliminary consultation on this amendment to the Urban Plan, a measure for the acquisition of land by the municipality, to protect it or convert it into green zones, was presented. This involved using the 7% (now 10%?) contribution for park purposes when applying for a subdivision or building permit, through the new municipal tool of pre-emption on the sale of land.

At the Wentworth-Nord council meeting of February 15, 2023, we had already learned that councillors and members of the administration had participated in the Public Lands Allocation Plan, which the government renews every five years. This plan concerns, among other things, the designation of land to be protected. In this respect, the municipality was working on a vision to be presented to the Ministry des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts. https://wentworth-nord.ca/      Wentworth-Nord makes a commitment

Certain elements of this policy of designating protected areas, such as the use of pre-emption on the sale of land, may have caused concern among some landowners. Information, awareness-raising and citizen involvement must therefore accompany this land protection policy.
Today, Colleen Horan, town councillor and chair of the Comité consultatif en environnement de la municipalité (CCE), is turning to lake associations for support in such efforts to implement a protected areas policy in Wentworth-Nord.

By Carl Chapdelaine

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) & Linguee

(Example- Letter of support:)

Municipality of Wentworth-Nord
3488, route Principale, Wentworth-Nord (Qc) J0T 1Y0

Contact: Sébastien PONCELET,
Environmental Coordinator
Service de l’urbanisme et de l’environnement

Subject: Letter of support for the creation of a protected area on public land in Wentworth-Nord

Date                

Dear Mr. Poncelet

NAME hereby supports the creation of a protected area on the territory of the municipality of Wentworth-Nord. The protection of the municipality's public land is essential to preserve the integrity of ecosystems and habitats for biodiversity, and to help achieve the target of protecting 30% of the territory by 2030.

This project will consolidate conservation cores due to its proximity to the Buck Mountains Reserve and other private lands protected through voluntary conservation. It also aims to protect several natural environments of high ecological value, such as wetlands and hydric environments of conservation interest and exceptional forest massifs. In addition, the project will help consolidate regional connectivity by becoming part of the ecological network identified by Éco-corridors laurentiens, namely the Oka-Tremblant eco-corridor.
(DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANIZATION/INSTITUTION AND ITS INTEREST IN THE PROJECT - IF NECESSARY)

NAME therefore supports the project to create a protected area in Wentworth-Nord.

We support your efforts to protect this area, which will contribute to the goal of 30% protected areas in Quebec by 2030, and to do so in a connected way, via a system of ecological corridors that promote the resilience of the province's ecosystems. The area is located in a zone of great ecological interest, making it ideal for preserving biodiversity and ecological connectivity.

In order to make its own contribution to this project, our organization wishes to protect its property at ADDRESS, lot number LOT NUMBER, in perpetuity.

The mobilization of local and regional stakeholders for the protection of this area testifies to the importance of preserving these natural environments for the local population. By harmonizing different uses and planning the land in a sustainable manner, it will be possible to restore the balance between land uses, while protecting habitats of high ecological value and their biodiversity.

Yours sincerely

SIGNATURE
NAME
ORGANIZATION

Québec Meilleure Mine analyzed the CAQ's 200 proposed amendments to the mineral exploration and extraction regulations.

Despite complaints from the industry, very few gains were made for the people who occupy the territory. Of the 60 demands made by Québec Meilleur Mine, only 6 were proposed in the bill.

The gains include private and agricultural land, woodlots and land around lakes. They are protected from claims. From now on, only exploration companies can take a claim. The aim is that when there is a claim, there must be exploration work. All development projects will have to go through the BAPE (Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement). There is a lot of resistance from mining companies to the amendments, claiming that there is no evidence of water contamination, tourism or economic danger.

Québec Meilleure Mine will be offering a webinar to lake associations for more information in August.

As for the 6 requests made by Coalition Qlaim (Coalition québécoise des lacs incompatibles avec l'activité minière), none were taken into consideration. Coalition QLAIM asked to be included in the discussions, and recommended that MRCs, which are responsible for land-use planning, should take precedence over mine development, that the Minister should be able to block claims, and that OGATs (Orientations gouvernementales en aménagement du territoire) should take precedence over claims.

For the protection of waterways and lakes, a bylaw was passed to ensure that protected territories (5 buildings) are now 1000 metres from the shore (a gain of 400 metres).
However, potentially contaminated watersheds are not considered. What's more, there will be no moratorium, public land will not be protected and the social acceptability measure will still be under the control of the operating companies.

In more densely populated areas, such as the Laurentians, environmental protection is essential to the quality of drinking water. In addition to creating noise, air pollution and road damage from heavy trucks, a mine project contaminates waterways and groundwater. 

It's incomprehensible that RCMs can't influence this industry.

Representatives, municipalities, prefects and RCMs must demand more rights; in fact, RCMs must regain their planning rights.

- Claim: mining rights

At the Wentworth-Nord council meeting on April 17, Councillor Karine Dostie announced the adoption of an amendment to the Fire Prevention Bylaw, adding a ban on fireworks on the shoreline or on the ice, with certain exceptions. The Chair of the Environment Committee, Colleen Horan, also echoed this announcement at the same meeting. Fireworks had thus become a danger and an environmental nuisance.

During the national celebrations at the beginning of summer, we often wondered how the wildlife, which surrounds us so closely here, would react after dark to the explosions of the fireworks, often amplified by the deafening noise of the bombs. As the moment passed, we calculated that, like a solar eclipse, the fauna would soon return to its normal life. But even so, knowing that sound carries over our bodies of water, such activities seemed questionable. Once again, this year, some of Newaygo's fireworks enthusiasts, no doubt unaware of the new legislation, had a field day.

At no other time, perhaps, have we been so preoccupied with the impact of our noises on wildlife. The hunter, of course, must have imagined the terror of his prey at the sound of a rifle shot; and the hunting season was certainly on the wildlife calendar. The noise of our heavy machinery, our highways, our airplanes, a chainsaw, or whatever, must certainly be detrimental to many species, when calling for breeding partners, and corrupt the amorous tirades of our birds. Do certain insects, whose sounds are sometimes already inaudible to our ears, need to find other ways of communicating? Do our noises threaten the very survival of certain species?

And talk to cat owners: "When I came to live here (in Newaygo) permanently, in 2003, my cat disappeared into the forest for three days, terrorized by these noises. He was so frightened that he scratched me to get me to let him go so he could escape into the forest."
Furthermore, if we can see that observing the starry sky in cities is no longer comparable to observing it in the countryside, doesn't the noise that accompanies us today also hide the original nature of our sound environment?

In fact, several studies have shown that noise pollution affects many animal species. Birds, for example, are said to sing louder in cities than in the countryside. La pollution sonore et ses impacts sur la biodiversité

We often only know the surface of a lake. This observation has always been used as an argument to explain the lack of attention we sometimes pay to the underwater environment. Yet we know that sound travels well underwater; and the impact of boat engine noise on the estimated behavior of marine mammals, which communicate by sound, is now part of our environmental concerns. And what about our lake fish? Don't they communicate by sound too? Science speaks: "It may seem astonishing, but some species have quite developed auditory acuity." Le silence révèle des sons Obviously, this is yet another new scientific discipline looking for a subject.

Acoustic ecology has yet to get its head under the surface of lakes, and the aquascopes introduced by CRE-Laurentides, RSVL or our national Mat Madison are not yet equipped with hydrophones. But already, a handful of researchers are pointing the finger at the acoustic nuisance caused by our outboard motors; and the louder they make, the more likely they are to affect our aquatic fauna. And that's not counting the inconvenience to our loons.

For Raphaël Proulx, professor of conservation biology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, and doctoral student in physical geography, natural biodiversity also exists in the form of sounds emitted by different sources, animal or otherwise. "These different acoustic sources interact with each other and can have an impact on living organisms, as well as on the environment". (Oui, la pollution sonore a un impact sur la biodiversité)

But while research supports the finding that some species, such as birds, flee areas affected by our noise pollution, the aquatic fauna of our lakes is trapped by it. And while the authorities have regulated the volume of sound emitted by our vehicles, no measures seem to exist to protect these territories. Shouldn't our zoning regulations also take into account the impact of sound in protecting the environment of our lakes?

"(For Raphaël Proulx, the environments most affected by noise pollution are marine and freshwater environments. Why?) Quite simply because humans are unaware of the noise they make underwater, since they can't hear it." For him, "noise pollution has a real impact on the aquatic life of the region's lakes". And they increase with the speed of the boats. Here, in a way, if speed doesn't kill, at the very least, it pollutes.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) & Linguee

By Carl Chapdelaine

The Laurentians of today and those of the past, still the same environment? You have certainly read, among others, Dave Clark's childhood memoirs on trains, in the Lake St. François-Xavier Fall 2011 Newsletter, or imagined the arrival by train of vacationers in Montfort and weekend skiers in the other villages of the region. Some in the summer, others in the winter, they would join the cottages or hotels for reunions and eventful weekends.

It was an environment that may have suffered from logging and the log drive, but which could accommodate without too much damage, despite the consumption of coal or diesel, a certain flow of visitors. Today, logging has moved somewhat away from urbanized centers and lakes, mostly for lack of resources. The log drive has disappeared, although its waste still lines the bottom of our lakes.

Thousands of vehicles have replaced the few passenger cars; a monstrous array of carriage roads, with ramps right to your door, and the highway have replaced the only two railroads. The exact opposite of what would have been needed, on a territory-wide scale, to avoid the devastation of this coveted environment. And, as with almost everything in human endeavor, there is no turning back.

You probably think about it; you wonder about your environmental impact, especially on the protection of the lake. But you don't see much opportunity to do better. Will enjoying the environment always mean destroying it? How to get out of this vicious circle? The car is essential to you; and carpooling or public transportation do not seem to you to be suitable alternatives for your trips from the lake to the village or to the city. More likely, you will have to take the plunge and buy an electric car, counting on the presence of the essential charging stations for its use?

But we are far from seeing floating over Wentworth-Nord, the smog cloud that, as the meteorologists indicate, occasionally covers the Metropolis. So, is it urgent to apply the brakes, often more than a hundred kilometers from Montreal? Aren't our Laurentians still our infinite reserve of nature, water, and pure air? That is, of course, if we have finally been able to get off the highway; that Eurasian Watermilfoil or sediments have not already denatured our waterways...

Health is a priority in Quebec; it has just been offered a budget for a still nebulous development plan. When will we see a similar plan to protect our environment, with a call to all? Isn't one of our problems our isolation from the challenge? You deliver your garbage to the composting or recycling facility, with the uncertainty of its ultimate destination. You drive slower and perhaps go less far. All in all, you do your small part. But, in fact, you're still polluting more than you should. And that is not a general mobilization to initiate a reversal of the trend. 

Your priority, if you are a permanent resident, is to go to school or to your business; to your cottage if you are a cottager. You must invite friends or relatives and, as there are hardly any shops and private services in this municipality scattered around its lakes, you take your car to go and get supplies in Saint-Sauveur, while filling up in Morin-Heights. Even with the relocation opportunities provided by telecommuting, isn't the lack of these services a major barrier to reducing travel for Nord-Wentwortois?

The escape towards the still not very urbanized spaces of the Laurentians, accelerated by the appearance of digital economy, as well as the immoderate use of the individual vehicle, are they not the reflection of the individualism that characterizes our society? However, we will have to start recovering the collective services of yesteryear, and getting seriously involved in safeguarding this environment, rather than simply asking governments to reduce greenhouse gases on our behalf.

Could we imagine, as Montrealers of the baby boom will remember, that the greengrocer, the bread seller, the milkman, or the knife sharpener would deliver these essential goods and services to our doorstep, thus reducing the number of vehicles on our roads? Moreover, hasn't Covid visibly encouraged the development of home delivery of prepared meals in the metropolis, despite the omnipresence of grocery stores and supermarkets? As in some reports on the French countryside, or even as in the case of the delivery of meals to the staff of the Montfort Pavilion, such a service is perhaps not unthinkable as long as everyone can find something to do with it. Who hasn't jokingly imagined that the pizza delivery guy would come to the lake to save you the trouble of preparing the meal or to change your routine?

Several lake associations, aware that we should not rely on the beautiful mirror that they display, have adopted a charter, which aims primarily to protect them. Why not develop a charter for the protection of the environment, to be proposed to all residents, even if our sky is still clear blue and our forest still greens our valleys and hills?

At the last council meeting, the unveiling of the ambitious program of the Environmental Advisory Committee, by its president, Mrs. Colleen Horan, deserves our attention: protection of waterways (septic systems, buoys, etc.); forests; wildlife; air; silence and peace; education through awareness. “And these are just the categories that will be given avenues to explore or focus on," added the Councillor. The citizens of Wentworth-Nord may have their own environmental protection charter; a tool to guide everyone's actions towards a common goal that is urgently needed. This is provided that the municipality does not limit itself to its priorities and, given the scarcity of its human resources, uses the committee only to support the respect of its environmental regulations.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) & Linguee

By Carl Chapdelaine,

Around the house, in Montreal, or even in the Saint-Sulpice woodlot next door, nothing to fear from this little plague; it is more likely that you’ll see there the coyote rather than the black fly. But yesterday, leaving my cottage by the Mount trail, arms loaded, I had to look like those saints of the Church with a halo around the head. A swarm of little black flies seemed to be magnetized by this succulent piece of resistance. Could not the Mohawks have been content with it for the torture of our Holy Canadian Martyrs? Nothing like it in the city or in Saint-Jérôme. What did you do with your black flies; did I ask the family of Saint-Colomban two days before? Yet we were on the deck of the house, on the edge of the woods.

It may not have been ten years since I wondered about the fact that my windshield was never stained by some crushed bugs when I came into or out of the Laurentians. I am neither an entomologist nor a biologist, and I could not give any explanation. When I was a teenager, say at the end of the 1950s, my father's car windshield was covered with crushed flying insects, flies of all kinds, butterflies and whatever, at the least car ride in the country.  Relatives confirmed to me that this was the case.

In fact it was so and elsewhere on the planet, that the term "windshield phenomenon" appeared in the realm of science. Given the lack of statistical data, some would have even tried to measure the opacity of the layer of crushed insects on the windshields to possibly assess the evolution of the problem; a kind of windshield protocol...

An important study, or rather a synthesis of the researches listed on the subject, would have been produced in Europe, in 2017, and another in Australia, to identify the magnitude, probable causes and consequences of what would prove to be a phenomenal decrease of several categories of these insects. There is even talk of the most important episode of extinction since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. But we could not have established a direct correlation between one or the other cause and the phenomenon. In fact it seems that insects have not been the favorite of researchers in the past. And the crawling insects, like the aquatic species, are not spared by this fall of population. 

In 1875, an invasion of billions of Rocky Mountain Locust took a week to cross Plattsmouth, Nebraska. A few decades later, following the development of large-scale farming and livestock production, the last of their extinct species were seen in the Canadian prairie. National Geographic.

Highly sensitive to pesticides, ephemera or manna, an aquatic species, are endangered in certain regions of Quebec. And when did you see your last grasshopper, your last bumble bee or even your last butterfly? Éphémères

We will list here the possible causes, identified or pointed at by the researchers, that we have noted:

-  Habitat and the environment (The conversion of plains to agricultural land, urbanization, deforestation, drying up of wetlands, invasive insects species and parasites, bacteria or fungi, fighting fires and perhaps forest management, light pollution, etc.)

-  Biodiversity loss, agricultural practices, pesticides and herbicides: Some insects feed on specific plant elements; however monoculture has considerably reduced the number of plants in huge territories. These insects are gone with the plants associated with them. : Karner Blue. 

A researcher, Henri Goulet, who spent 50 years studying insects for Agriculture Canada, says that non-flying insects suffered the same fate as the flying ones. « Entire species of beetles that he used to study no longer exist at the Central Experiment Farm, he says, and he believes the change came as Ontario farmers shifted to growing more corn. Goulet blames the herbicides sprayed on cornfields in spring, before the seed is planted. … (But) some places seem protected. Pinery Provincial Park west of London, Ont., is beside Lake Huron, and it seems to resist the disappearing-insect trend. One theory is that the prevailing west winds come a long way across the lake and are cleansed of pesticides.» Ottawa Citizen.

Bumblebees and bees are more present in our minds. Some pesticides used in fields or orchards seem to be the cause of their decline; at least in Europe, where the main studies cited have been made: Radio Canada international.

-  The car: Some have wondered if the road and the cars, which killed millions of flying insects in Illinois as elsewhere, would not have decimated the populations of these insects. Canadian geographic.

-  Climate change (extreme temperatures, droughts, etc.) is mentioned as a potential cause. But it can also favor certain species, such as the Eastern hemlock looper, which would have benefited from milder winters to increase its area of expansion in Quebec. Société d'entomologie du Québec

Consequences :
-  In agriculture or beekeeping: Pollination of crops reduced and fall of honey production.
-  Disappearance of bird and mammal species that feed on flying insects, such as swallows and bats, etc.

Query:
From Montreal to James Bay by car, when it's the season of insects, the phenomenon of the windshield still exists, assures me a friend who stayed there recently. And it is not with a passage in a simple car wash that you will manage to take the junk off. Neighbors in Montreal also tell me that they still harvest insects in this way by going either to the Eastern Townships or to Saint-Michel-des-Saints, high in Lanaudière, or Ville-Marie, in the Témiscamingue; but in less quantity than formerly all the same. In addition, while telling me that there are black flies on the Val-d'Or, Abitibi, golf course this week and that they are tearing you off pieces of skin, I am assured that windshields are certainly harvesting flies by going from Val-d'Or to Ville-Marie.

So, if the phenomenon still exists in areas where obviously the forest reigns or predominates, it may be necessary to establish quantitative mapping throughout Quebec, with the windshield protocol for lack of other instruments. One could thus appreciate the situation, see the future evolution of the phenomenon, if it still exists, and help discern between the causes invoked in Europe and elsewhere.

The black fly is therefore a sign of a still natural environment; for our happiness to all ... The forest workers would cover themselves with oil and get used to it. (But tell me when their cycle is over, a Montrealer can survive pollution, not black flies!)

Without prejudice, by Carl Chapdelaine

Bye-bye, bug splatter: Is this the new silent spring? : David Suzuki

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