The Mastigouche Wildlife Reserve is a Quebec Wildlife Reserve located in the administrative regions of the Mauricie and

Lanaudière Lanaudière (, ) is one of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada, situated immediately to the northeast of Montreal. It has a total population ( 2016 Census) of 494,796 inhabitants, an increase of 4.9% over the 2011 census. Geog ...

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 ...

, in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Comprising 1556 square kilometres, it includes 417 lakes and 13 rivers. Like all wildlife reserves, this area is dedicated to the conservation, development and use of wildlife as well as recreational activities. It is however not considered a protected area, because forest and mining activities are being allowed. The reserve is managed by Sépaq which offers camping and equipment rentals.

Toponymy

The name of the reserve is derived from the Mastigouche Hunting and Fishing club, which was established in 1881. The name comes from the Atikamekw or the Algonquin (language) and mean "where the woods are small".

History

The first private hunting club concession in Mastigouche was awarded to Élisabeth Copeland de Berthier in 1881. Two other large clubs were later created in the territory which were the Saint Bernard Club and the Commodore. These clubs mainly catered to wealthy American members. In 1971, the Quebec government decided to democratize access to hunting and fishing. It terminated the leases of private hunting and fishing clubs and grouped them to create the reserve under the name "Mastigouche Park Reserve". In 1979, it took its present name "Mastigouche Wildlife Reserve".

Geography

The reserve is located 95 km northwest of

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of ...

and 145 km northeast of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, Quebec. It can be accessed via Saint-Alexis-des-Monts in Mauricie or Saint-Zénon and Mandeville, in Lanaudière. The reserve includes the Marie-Jean-Eudes Ecological Reserve and the proposed biodiversity reserve of the Basses-Collines-du-Lac-au-Sorcier. It also shares boundaries with the La Mauricie National Park to the east, to the

ZEC du Chapeau-de-Paille The ZEC Chapeau de Paille is a "zone d'exploitation contrôlée" (controlled harvesting zone) (zec), located in the Mekinac Regional County Municipality, in administrative region of Mauricie, in Quebec (Canada). This Zec which was created in 1978 ...

to the north and ZEC des Nymphes to the west.

Features

According to Sépaq, the main attractions of the park are: *The Six Waterfall Trail *The Maubèche Waterfall *The wooded campground and beach at Lac Saint-Bernard The popular fishing destination Lac Sorcier is so-named because of a legendary sorcerer that haunts the woods around the lake, keeping visitors awake at night with strange calls.

Wildlife

The reserve is home to over 30 mammal species, including

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

, lynx,

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

, American black bear, and hare. Among the birds found in the park, there are

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of ...

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

ruffed grouse The ruffed grouse (''Bonasa umbellus'') is a medium-sized grouse occurring in forests from the Appalachian Mountains across Canada to Alaska. It is the most widely distributed game bird in North America. It is non-migratory. It is the only specie ...

, and

common loon The common loon or great northern diver (''Gavia immer'') is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish ...

Fishing

According to Sépaq, the reserve has 18 main fishing lakes containing bass,

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a p ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

, musky,

lake trout The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...

, brook trout, rainbow trout and

arctic char The Arctic char or Arctic charr (''Salvelinus alpinus'') is a cold-water fish in the family Salmonidae, native to alpine lakes and arctic and subarctic coastal waters. Its distribution is Circumpolar North. It spawns in freshwater and populat ...

. Landlocked Atlantic salmon can be still be found in Lac Sorcier. Originating from

Lac Saint-Jean Lac Saint-Jean (Canadian French: ) is a large, relatively shallow lake in south-central Quebec, Canada, in the Laurentian Highlands. It is situated north of the Saint Lawrence River, into which it drains via the Saguenay River. It covers an area ...

, the species was also introduced by club members into Lac Saint-Bernard and Lac Sans Bout by club members in the 1920s.

Gallery

File:Swimming at the beach on Lac Saint Bernard.jpg , Beach at Lac Saint-Bernard File:Beach at Lac Saint-Bernard with a duck at sunset.jpg , Duck on the beach at Lac Saint-Bernard at sunset File:Lac Saint Bernard 2021 August.jpg, Lac Saint Bernard viewed from La Falaise trail File:Stone island in the middle of Lac Saint-Bernard.jpg , view from the island in B Lac Saint-Bernard File:Accueil Grand-Lac-Des-Îles - panoramio.jpg , Welcome Centre at Grand-Lac-des-Îles File:Embarcations du Grand-Lac-Des-Îles - panoramio.jpg , Boat Launch at Grand-Lac-des-Îles File:Lac Sans Bout 01.jpg , Lac Sans Bout File:Lac Livernoche Reserve faunique de Mastigouche.jpg, Lac Livernoche from the trail at Camping Lac Saint-Bernard

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mastigouche Wildlife Reserve Protected areas of Lanaudière Protected areas of Mauricie Protected areas established in 1971