Mirabel Peat Bog

• Under the current sales program for the 11,000 acres of Mirabel Airport land, Transport Canada has opted to retain ownership of the Mirabel Peat Bog and develop a co-management agreement with Environment Canada with the ultimate goal of maintaining the bog's integrity. One of the first planned activity for this management plan is to evaluate the exact area of the bog and its state of preservation. Once this is done, the experts will identify what kind of scientific and educational activities and mode of management the bog could sustain. The approximate peat bog area is 500 acres.
  
  
• The Mirabel Bog is of great interest from a scientific research and education perspective. Considering its geographical location, the bog's ecological integrity is remarkably intact. The vast majority of bogs this large in the St. Lawrence Plain have been either totally or partially developed or simply no longer exist.
  
  
• Located to the north of Highway 50, the Mirabel Bog is of the raised ombrotrophic type, meaning that it receives its water in the form of precipitation, which is also its sole source of nutrients. The age of such bogs can be up to some eight thousand years.
  
  
• A bog like the one in Mirabel could be described as a “refuge bog” for northern plant and animal species, which is exceptional for the greater Montreal area. For example, this location is an important breeding site for the palm warbler, a migratory bird species whose nesting habitat in southern Quebec is limited to bogs of this type.
  
  
• The bog is also home to at least two species likely to be designated threatened or vulnerable by the Quebec government: an orchid (Platanthera blephariglottis) and a fern (Woodwardia virginica).
  
  
• In the middle of the bog there is a large open area dense with mosses, including peats, and heath species. In wooded bog areas, the tree stratum is primarily made up of black spruce and tamarack, but also contains gray birch, red maple and white spruce. High shrubs complete the bog's vegetation mix. Around it are other woodlands dominated by red maple, sugar maple and eastern hemlock.
  
  
• In preserving the Mirabel Bog, Transport Canada is taking steps to conserve local wetlands and ensuring that they continue to play their ecological and socio-economic role, for the present and the future, in accordance with the provisions of the government's Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation.
  
  
• The Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation is based on the principle of no net loss of wetland functions on all federal lands and waters and in areas affected by the implementation of federal programs. For as long as the federal government owns wetlands, the Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation will apply.

December 2006