Mont-Saint-Pierre Ecological Reserve
IUCN Category Ia - Strict Nature Reserve
BWf1
The Réserve écologique de Mont -Saint- Pierre is a decorated in 2001, 643 ha reserve in the south of the Canadian province of Quebec, in the MRC La Haute- Gaspésie in the Gaspésie region.
It is close to Mont -Saint- Pierre in the valley of the river Rivière de Mont -Saint -Pierre.
The area protects incurred on rock foundations of the Ordovician and post-glacial deposits and based on greywacke and boulder clay scree on the steep slopes of the valley. Here weathering processes of the subsurface, dry rivers, the movement of sandstone blocks, sliding movements on snow and ice with superficial or underground landslides are observed.
The temperature at sea level is here the average of 3 ° C, however, achieved in the July 20, January -13.8 ° C. Of the 1,000 mm of rainfall per year, about one-third falls as snow between mid-October and the end of April. In this case, an additional 20 mm of rain fall per month during this period. Mostly as a northwest wind, but also often as the east wind upon the land stroking speeds of more than 100 km / h can be often achieved. While in the valley occasionally lie 55 cm of snow, are further above 3 m, sometimes even 4 m are not uncommon. There are 1 to 1.5 meters of snow, the thaw until the end of May.
Above the slopes is a plateau where yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis ) and paper birch (Betula papyrifera ) predominate, as well as balsam fir (Abies balsamea ) and western arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis). In the higher areas there are dense and compact islands of Thuja, which, as they say in Quebec, are " crooked wood " called. Let the power of very strong winds are tangible. There, the forest is however on the decline. Here, snow and rock avalanches play a significant role. Thus, since the 1950s, sometimes 30 m wide and 200 m long landslide took place, which destroyed 6000 m² of forests.
The fact that in this area a number of rare plants growing, already the botanist Merritt Lyndon presented in the years 1923 and 1927, Fernald ( 1873-1950 ) of Harvard University determined. But only in 1974 was proposed to establish a protected area, and it took another 27 years until the area was placed under strict protection.
The trigger was the fate of a single species of plant. In the park there are about three-fifths of Québec stocks of Astragalus scupulicola, which is now expected to Astragalus australis, while she held previously for an endemic species. This is one of the 1600-2500 species of the genus Astragalus ( Astragalus ), which in turn belongs to the subfamily of the Fabaceae within the legume family. It is extremely rare. It is found in Quebec only at three locations in Ontario to one in Manitoba at three. Otherwise, it is found only in western North America. In Québec, a location at the Ottawa is known, two at Lac Témiscamingue and five on the Mont Saint- Pierre; in total there are only about 3000 copies. From 1500 to 2000 copies of Mont Saint -Pierre in turn are 90 % in reserve. Previously, the plant was often picked and therefore she finds herself alone in 50 herbaria in the province of Quebec. Since 1992, she is on the list of critically endangered species.
Among the rare plants but also includes Oxytropis viscida (English sticky locoweed ), then Erigeron compositus from the kind of professional herbal or silver Elaeagnus ( Elaeagnus commutata ), the chalef argenté says here. Companion of Astragalus are often the ash or Labrador rose (Rosa blanda ), the Round-leaved bellflower ( Campanula rotundifolia ), Premanthes trifoliolata, one of the asteraceae, Prunus pumila var depressa (german Eastern sand cherry ), a sand cherry, finally Dryas drummondii, a species in the genus of silver sausages, which is found only in Northeast Asia and North America.