Mountains Stoke Project - Nature Eastern Townships

CONSERVATION SECTIONS
STOKE MOUNTAINS

A vision of regional development

The Stoke Mountains massif is located approximately 5 km northeast of Sherbrooke, in the municipalities of Stoke, Ascot Corner, Dudswell and Westbury. With a surface area of approximately 159 km², forest massifs of this size are very rare in the inhabited regions of southern Quebec.

The Stoke Mountains massif is known to support populations of the purple salamander, a species designated as vulnerable under provincial law. As part of this conservation project, Nature Eastern Townships is conducting an inventory of the streams and rivers in the Stoke Mountains to determine the location of the purple salamander populations.

66
ecological assessments covering 2,680 ha

103
new occurrences of the purple salamander

390
new occurrences of of northern dusky salamander

+ 50
stream inventories

The Stoke Mountains forest conservation project in 3 points:

A concerted approach with the various local and regional stakeholders (municipalities, RCM, community organizations, etc.);
A detailed portrait of the conservation and development issues of the Stoke Mountains forest massif, which served as the basis for the development of an action plan submitted in April 2012.
Continued collaboration with private landowners in regards to the characterization and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems through improved practice of existing uses.

Ecological profile of the Stoke Mountains

Mainly composed of hardwood forests, the sparsely fragmented state of the Stoke Mountains massif provides it with significant potential for wildlife and plant biodiversity. The massif is marked by an extensive hydrographic system, with a minimum of 40 mapped permanent streams, providing favourable sites for stream salamanders.

The Stoke Mountains’ ecosystems are comprised of:

protection measures, spread across several hundred private properties;
Several peaks over 600 m in altitude, including Mount Chapman (658 m), an area of steep slopes with mostly undisturbed ecosystems;
Several high-flowing streams, including Ryther, Big Hollow, Willard, Bouchard, Rowe and Thibodeau brooks;
Several known habitats for the northern purple salamander and northern dusky salamander, both of which are at-risk species.

The massif’s proximity to the city of Sherbrooke, a major urban center, makes it vulnerable to urban development, which would be incompatible with maintaining the sector’s biodiversity. The conservation of the low-fragmented forest cover and multi-resource uses such as timber supply, hunting, fishing and recreational tourism is the most appropriate future vision for the rich natural capital of the Stoke Mountains. To achieve this, stakeholders must reconcile the various uses of the territory with the imperatives of conserving the natural environment.

To learn more about voluntary conservation options, click here

PROJECT PartNERS: