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The Appalachian corridor is part of the Green Mountains, a segment of the Appalachian range that straddles the Canada-US border.
The Appalachian Corridor’s territory overlaps three natural regions: the Green Mountains (72,600 hectares), the Estrie-Beauce Plateaus & Hills (214,200 hectares) and a small portion of the White Mountains (2,800 hectares).
This territory of 289,600 hectares reaches beyond Mount Orford as far as the St-François River, including the Rivière au Saumon and Magog River watersheds. It encompasses the Sutton Mountains massif and its foothills, as well as Lake Memphremagog, the Tomifobia River, Mount Pinnacle, Alderbrooke Marsh and the Brome Lake wetlands. It also includes a series of hills linking Mount Orford to the Sutton Mountains.
Concerted, collaborative work between all conservation organisations involved (ACA, its affiliated members and other partners) is the key to effective conservation of the Green Mountains natural heritage.
Tick information layers to visualise the territory using your own criteria and to learn more about its ecology and the conservation efforts.
Resources, database and other Interactive mapping
Credits
The Interactive Map has been created by Mark Lague and realized in collaboration with Appalachian Corridor.
This project has been made possible thanks to Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs' financial contribution.
Boundaries of Appalachian Corridor’s territory
Appalachian Corridor’s territory is located within two administrative regions of south-eastern Quebec, the Montérégie and Estrie; its southern boundary is the Canada-US border.
The territory was defined according to ecological criteria. Its boundaries take into account the physiographical units of the Green Mountains (A0101 & A0102) and Beauce-Estrie Plateaus & Hills (A0202 to A0204), as well as the watersheds of the main rivers and waterbodies found in the region, which are, from west to east:
The whole area spreads over 2,900 square km (approx.) of which 2,000 are forested.
The Green Mountains – A transboundary corridor:
The territory of Appalachian corridor is part of the Green Mountains, a segment of the Appalachian range that straddles the Canada-US border and whose largest part is found in the United States.
Even though ACA’s territory is located exclusively in Quebec, close collaboration between Canadian and American conservation organisations working throughout the Green Mountains is central to the transboundary conservation strategy, as illustrated by the “Two Countries, One Forest” (or 2C1Forest) initiative; for more information visit: www.2c1forest.org
Sectors of activity
The territory covered by the Appalachian Corridor is divided into sectors in order to provide a better focus on local conservation issues.
Sectors are not necessarily defined to reflect ecological areas. Each sector can represent the territory of a local conservation organisation, municipality boundaries, watershed boundaries (as is the case at the eastern and northern ends of ACA’s territory), boundaries of the Appalachians Natural Province or physiographical units (as is the case at the western margin of the territory).
Select a sector on the list to discover its main ecological and geographical characteristics.
**Note that all descriptions of sectors are currently in French.**
Protected areas
BEFORE 2000
In 2000, there was only one large protected area in the region, Mount Orford National Park (58.4 square km ). Over a fifteen year period, various regional conservation organisations and local Land Trusts succeeded in protecting approximately 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of territory, including the Ruiter Valley Ecological Reserve.
Since the creation of ACA
The global conservation strategy proposed and implemented by ACA has considerably accelerated the process of protecting natural areas. The results of the past years are a testimony to the promising future of this ambitious initiative.
Since the beginning of the Appalachian Corridor conservation project, the size of the area protected in perpetuity has grown to more than 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres). Thanks to the acquisition of the Domtar property, almost two-thirds of the Sutton Mountains massif (60 square km) are now protected in perpetuity, representing the largest private protected area in Quebec.
Protected areas are presented in red on the Map and disapear at a certain scale, in order to respect privacy of landowners.
Who protects this territory?
Most of the properties protected on the territory of the Appalachian Corridor are owned by conservation organisations or by private landowners who handed over a number of rights of use (forestry cuts, road or property development, etc.) against a conservation servitude or a nature reserve status.
Several landowners made a land donation or proceeded to selling their property at a reduced price. As well as gaining tax benefits for their land donations, landowners are guaranteed that the ecological integrity of their property will be protected forever.
In some cases, the government acquired land to create a national park or ecological reserve. These protected areas are managed by the Quebec government. No protected area on the Appalachian Corridor’s territory is owned by the federal government.
For more information about voluntary conservation on private land, visit ACA’s webpage at www.apcor.ca, Volontary Conservation section
Affiliated members
Numerous conservation organisations are involved in protecting natural habitats throughout the territory. Eleven of them, as well as two organisations managing hiking trails, are affiliated members of the Appalachian Corridor and take an active part in the conservation strategy and its implementation.
These organisations were mostly created by groups of landowners and citizens with the aim of taking direct and practical action for the conservation of natural habitats.
Most of the organisations on the Appalachian Corridor territory own protected properties, organise activities to raise conservation awareness and promote conservation issues such as sound and healthy practices in terms of town-planning, wetland and forest management, ecotourism or sustainable development.
The map shows the center point of each affiliated member's territory, along with its acronym (French acronym).
ACNSS : Association de conservation de la nature de Stukely-Sud
CVS: Conservation des vallons de la Serpentine
FMM : Memphremagog Wetlands Foundation
FFMA : Alderbrooke Marsh Landtrust
FFMP: Fiducie foncière mont Pinacle
FFVR: Ruiter Brook Landtrust
FTLB: Brome Lake land foundation
MECA: Mount Echo Conservation Association
PENS: Parc d'environnement naturel de Sutton
SCCNRS: Société de conservation du corridor naturel de la rivière au Saumon
SE: Sentiers de l'Estrie
SPFLMJ: Société de protection foncière du lac Montjoie.
Click here to read about the member organisations of the Appalachian Corridor.
Conservation cores and buffer zones
Appalachian Corridor's conservation strategy is based on the design of protected areas and the most up-to-date principles in the field of conservation science with regard to the management of natural areas.
This design includes:
1. A conservation "core area" large enough to ensure the survival of all representative species of the natural region and to protect all its ecosystems. Conesrvation cores areas are shown in dark green on the map.
Conservation core areas of 10 square km would suffice to maintain ecosystems representative of temperate regions such as that of the Appalachian Corridor. A few conservation cores of more than 10 square km have been identified in the region and are represented in the map.
2. Buffer zones around these core areas also ensure conservation of natural areas, while allowing numerous uses that do not compromise the ecological integrity of these areas.
Buffer zones are essential to conserve the natural habitats found in the core areas.
3. Corridors that link these core areas are also an integral part of the conservation strategy, since they help maintain connectivity, an essential function to the viability of animal populations since they allow animals to travel, increase their feeding range and favour genetic diversity.
An important scientific study is underway to identify wildlife corridors used by a variety of animal species. Results will be presented on completion.
4. Hot spots (or places of high biodiversity value): ACA’s conservation strategy promotes protection of the most sensitive areas (hot spots) located in the peripheral zone, i.e. between conservation cores and the areas of more intensive activities.
Even though hot spots may not always coincide with the larger natural areas, it is necessary to ensure their conservation and maintain their biodiversity because they contribute significantly to increasing the variety of protected habitats, thus allowing protection of a wider range of species at risk. Hot spots should also be linked to other elements – such as cores, buffer zones, etc – via corridors.
5. The territory being inhabited and therefore fragmented, a variety of smaller conservation cores can be found. These play an important role in the biodiversity conservation strategy, owing to the presence of either habitats of threatened or vulnerable wildlife species (fauna or flora); or viable bird, reptile, amphibian or small mammal populations associated with forested, wetland or aquatic habitats.
Taken individually, the smaller conservation cores may not sustain viable populations of species at risk, but including them within the ecological network of cores, buffer zones, hotspots and corridors will enable them to achieve this function.
Hiking Trails
The Appalachians natural habitats create unique landscapes. Most of these beautiful sites and breathtaking view points can be accessed thanks to organisations dedicated to conserving and managing footpaths and hiking trails.
Hiking trails are presented on the Map and disapear at a certain scale. To get the maps, you may communicate directly with the associations.
Four trail networks of varying length and difficulty criss-cross the territory. Camping is permitted at selected sites only.
Visit their websites for further information: