The Etchemin River is a river in the

Chaudière-Appalaches Chaudière-Appalaches () is an administrative region in Quebec, Canada. It comprises most of what is historically known as the "Beauce" (french: La Beauce; compare with the electoral district of Beauce). It is named for the Chaudière River and ...

region of eastern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It gave its name to

Les Etchemins Regional County Municipality Les Etchemins is a regional county municipality in the Chaudière-Appalaches region of eastern Quebec, Canada. It is named for the Etchemin River which finds its source in the region, as well as Etchemin Lake. Lac-Etchemin is the seat of the RC ...

. The river itself was named for the

Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...

native people of the area who the French called "les Etchemins." The source of the river is not Etchemin Lake but a little east of the lake, in Saint-Luc-de-Bellechasse. The Etchemin River, which had become been the victim of pollution for decades, became the topic of conversation in 1993, when a few residents of Saint-Léon-de-Standon began work on a project to revive the

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

in the river. The project was scoffed at in the beginning since damming and logging along the Etchemin's shore and agricultural runoff and dumping had polluted the river so much that Atlantic salmon had been last seen there two centuries earlier. Although the odds were against them, locals from different riverbank communities began work on the river and formed the Comité de restauration de la rivière Etchemin (CRRE). Work then began to plant over 15,000 trees on the riverbanks and to make salmon-friendly rapids and shelters for spawning. In 2002, the first adult Atlantic salmon was spotted in the river.

References

Rivers of Chaudière-Appalaches {{Quebec-river-stub

See also

References