« Following the death of the other members of my family, I found myself the sole owner of my family’s land of more than 37 hectares at the exit of the Val-Racine village. After a few years of logging, my sister Brigitte and I decided to divide it into large lots and sell them to potential newcomers. I continued this project alone and, after assessing the quality of the soil, I realized that there were nearly 6 hectares of land in a wetland environment.
I wanted to protect this fragile environment, its fauna and flora, especially since it was located on the banks of the Victoria River and my father, who loved nature so much and had walked and skied through the area for a large portion of his life, would not have liked to see it left abandoned. That’s why I came up with the idea of giving this parcel of land to the municipality, which could create a rest area near the river.
My meeting with the conservation organization Nature Eastern Townships, during their ecological inventory of private lands around Mont-Mégantic in 2019, allowed me to set this project in motion. From there, the idea of making an ecological gift was born. The organization’s representatives informed me regarding the steps to undertake through the various governmental authorities in order to carry out the project. In fact, they did most of the work! Since I wanted to involve the municipality where my father worked for 20 years as a secretary, I decided to make a donation in co-ownership to both the organization and the municipality, which agreed. This became a reality in the fall of 2020. These rich ecosystems are now sustainably protected and I couldn’t be happier! The organization has formally committed to ensuring the ecological monitoring and conservation. Now, the only thing left to do is to secure the necessary funds for the construction of the few facilities that will allow real access, the only one in the village, to the Victoria River! I am confident this will happen soon! « 

Benoîte Dubé