The conservation vocation of the national parks is expressed both in the foundations of the mission and through tangible actions on the field. The conservation activities are divided into three categories: knowledge acquisition, environmental management, and protection.
Knowledge acquisition includes any activity that leads to a better understanding of the territory. Species inventories, the monitoring of rare plants or animals classified as vulnerable, studies on an area’s history, and scientific research are examples of knowledge acquisition activities. They are vital for guiding us adequately in our management choices and for enriching our discovery programs.
Although the main idea of a national park is to let the ecosystems evolve naturally, intervention may be necessary in certain cases to ensure the survival of particular species or to restore damaged areas. Through managing the natural milieu, we try to maintain or improve the level of ecological integrity within the parks.
The legal protection established by the Parks Act would not carry any weight if there were no regulations backing it up on the field. The role of the park wardens, who are in charge of applying these regulations, is fundamental for the protection of the territory, since these regulations were created to protect the natural and cultural riches that are at the very basis of the mission of the parks.
These three categories fall under the responsibility of managers. But there is a fourth and especially important category: your support. The national parks are part of the province’s public heritage. We are all responsible for protecting them. As visitors to the parks, your actions can contribute to supporting the conservation mission. To leave integrated and accessible territories to future generations is a responsibility shared by the public and the managers.
In the parks, conservation is managed according to policies established by the parks service of the Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs. But more specifically, how can we integrate the principles of these policies into our management methods and harmonize them with the conservation categories? This is the role of the Conservation Strategy.
This document defines our orientations for knowledge acquisition, environmental management and protection. Planning tools, such as specific conservation plans for each park, or specific tools like the Ecological Integrity Monitoring Program (EIMP) come out of this strategy.
When you go camping, there’s nothing like an evening around the campfire. But did you know that the wood you burn could be a time-bomb for the forest in the park and the region?
Transporting firewood is a major cause of tree diseases. Some newly established and damaging insects (such as the emerald ash borer) or those that are poised to enter (like the Asian long horned beetle) represent serious risks for our forests.
To minimize these risks: