Québec National Parks, one of the three magnificent Sépaq Networks

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	Conservation Mission

Historique

For several centuries, the territory of Parc national de la Jacques-Cartier was used as a route for travelling and commerce. The Montagnais and the Hurons also fished and trapped fur-bearing animals here. The Hurons worked as guides for the Jesuits in the 17th century, helping them cross the Laurentians between Québec City and Lac St. Jean without using the St. Lawrence River.

Starting in the mid-19th century, wood became one of the most popular products. The softwood stands in the high plateaus were systematically logged between 1920 and 1981. Wood was transported between plateaus and the mouth of the St. Lawrence on the Jacques Cartier River. The logs were driven to the Donnaconna mill right up until 1975.

Under the influence of the American conservation movement, and pressure from groups devoted to the protection of public territories reserved for recreational purposes, in 1985, the Québec government approved the Act respecting Parc des Laurentides as a forestry reserve, fishing and hunting site, public park, and recreational area for the citizens of Québec. The recreational vocation emerged in 1918 due to a policy of building fishing camps (hunting was abolished in 1927). The end of the war and the improvement of the road network going to the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region caused a considerable increase in the number of visitors.

In 1972, Hydro-Québec announced its Champigny project. The government agency planned to build a hydroelectric plant on the Jacques-Cartier River. Below is a memoir presented at the Parliamentary Commission on Industry and Commerce, Tourism, Hunting and Fishing on May 17, 1973 by the Committee for the Conservation of the Jacques Cartier.

"The local origin of the committee (Committee for the Conservation of the Jacques Cartier) meant that we had no choice but to take action. We would like to state that not one of the active members of the committee is directly threatened by the Hydro-Québec project. Because of their professions, preferences, past experiences, and especially because of their daily contact with the Jacques Cartier River, the members of the Committee for the Conservation of the Jacques Cartier were no doubt more susceptible than other citizens of the region or of Québec City to understanding the exact nature of the Hydro-Québec project and the scope of its anticipated effects. More than anyone else, since they are aware of the beauty of the branch of the river that was to be flooded, its recreational potential, and its park status, they were the first to raise questions and doubts about the appropriateness of this project. But they were not the only ones. Approximately 20,000 citizens to whom we explained the debate also supported our position without hesitation. Within a few weeks they signed a petition and demanded that the work be stopped, and that Hydro-Québec leave the Jacques-Cartier Valley."

The battle of the Jacques-Cartier, which is what the journalists called it, lasted from 1972 to 1975. After the project was abandoned, the Québec government gave the area the status of a conservation park in 1981 and called it Parc de la Jacques-Cartier. Thanks to a small group of determined citizens, this territory is now protected against all forms of commercial and industrial exploitation of its natural resources.