Ambioterra is an environmental organization based in Saint-Chrysostome that was started in 2002 by UQAM students who wanted to bring their passion and expertise for environmental protection to the Valley. They have since grown Ambioterra into an organization with different pillars, including conservation, restoration, and research of the environment around the region.
Ambioterra project manager Stéphane Gingras, gave a free lecture about managing and protecting trees in the Valley on March 5. The organization invited landowners who have forests or woodlands on their property, as well as the Montérégie Forestry Agency, which offers resources for these landowners.
Currently, there are no regulations or laws that prevent people from doing whatever they want to the trees on their property. Gingras says, “There are people who are exploiting the forest in the right way because, as an environmental organization, our message is not that we have to stop cutting down the forest, but that if we want to cut it down, we have to do it the right way.” This lecture gave tips on how to do things in an environmentally conscious way. About 25 people were in attendance, most of whom were landowners.
Protecting trees is about so much more than just the trees themselves. “Sure, there are trees in our forests, but there are all kinds of other life forms too. It’s a living environment. It is a habitat for many, many species, so it is important to protect the forests and woodlands that remain, because there are not many of them left anyway,” says Gingras. It’s important to recognize how the forest is connected to all the aspects of the environment, not just the plants.
One of the projects they have been working on for the past few years is the “Mon Arbre, Ma Forêt, Mon avenir!” campaign. This project is a tree nursery that provides citizens with trees that they can plant. They have worked with 32 farms to find ways to make agriculture better for the environment. “As a summary of this work, we have planted about seven kilometers of riparian strips and windbreaks on the land of various farmers,” Gingras explains.
Part of this project is making sure that Ambioterra is directly involved with the community. “Our goal is to get citizens involved. Every year, we distribute trees that are donated to us by the Quebec ministry of forests, and we give them to citizens to plant on their property. With the man going out every year, we distribute between 1,000 and 1,500 trees to citizens in the region,” Gingras says. They have been doing this for about 10 years at this point.
On the Suroît Regional Nursery website, there is now a map where people can see where the planted trees are and track what has been planted. Gingras jokes that “Our goal is for citizens to do the job if we’re lazy,” and emphasizes that taking care of the environment is a whole community affair and can’t be done alone.
Ambioterra runs solely on funding, and they don’t have a certain amount of money guaranteed to them each year. This means that their projects evolve based on which ones receive funding. For more information about the other projects Ambioterra is working on, visit www.ambioterra.org. Their recent conference was recorded and will soon be available on their YouTube channel.