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The Appalachian Corridor reflects on the successes of 2020

View from the top of Mount Echo. The landscape is rolling green mountains. The sky is blue and filled with clouds.
The lookout point, which is the highest point, on Mount Echo. Photo courtesy of Holly Mueller.
Holly Mueller - CIDI - Knowlton • QC | 17-11-2020
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It was a big and successful year for the Appalachian Corridor.

The Appalachian Corridor is a section of the Green Mountains located in Southern Quebec that dedicated volunteers and community members are fighting to save. They are working to make the Cooridor a conservation site in order to protect the plants and animals that call it home. As a very popular migratory route from Quebec to Vermont, and even further south, it is more important now than ever to protect the land due to the effects of climate change, the Appalachian Corridor team argues. In positive news, every year the percentage of permanently protected land increases and this year has been the most successful yet.

“We have protected nine new properties forever for a combined total of 700 hectares. Appalachian Corridor is now 7.6 per cent permanently protected,” said Mélanie Lelièvre, executive director of the Appalachian Corridor.

All these conservation achievements are credited to the scientific studies conducted via government grants.

“We had the chance to do lots of good science to better understand the land,” said Lelièvre.

“By protecting large natural corridors, we are protecting biodiversity which is the only way to ensure all the services provided by nature are maintained,” she added.

Lelièvre said that the work was only done through the "generous donations of the community." The volunteers receive two calls a month from private land owners that want to donate a piece or all of their land to the effort, she added.

“The national objective for conservation is 17 per cent, so we still have lots of work to do," said Lelièvre. "But we are quite proud of those results because 20 years ago there was no other protected area in the region."

“The mission of The Appalachian Corridor is to not only protect biodiversity but create a large natural corridor of protected areas," she added.

The Appalachian Corridor is a beautiful serene piece of nature that is slowly being protected forever.

Here is Mélanie Lelièvre, executive director of the Appalachian Corridor, speaking with CIDI: 

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