The ZEC Chapais is a "

zone d'exploitation contrôlée A ''zone d'exploitation contrôlée'' (in French; acronym ZEC) is a "Controlled harvesting zone" located in public lands areas of Quebec, in Canada. ZECs are a system of territorial infrastructures set up in 1978 by the Government of Quebec to take ...

" (controlled harvesting zone) (ZEC) located within the municipality of Mont-Carmel and the unorganized territory of Petit-Lac-Sainte-Anne in the (RCM)

Kamouraska Regional County Municipality Kamouraska is a regional county municipality in eastern Quebec, Canada. The regional county municipality seat is Saint-Pascal, but the largest town is La Pocatière. The area is an important research, development and education centre for agricul ...

, in the administrative region of

Bas-Saint-Laurent The Bas-Saint-Laurent (Lower Saint-Lawrence), is an administrative region of Quebec located along the south shore of the lower Saint Lawrence River in Quebec. The river widens at this place, later becoming a bay that discharges into the Atlanti ...

, in

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 ...

Geography

Covering an area of in

Notre Dame Mountains The Notre Dame Mountains are a portion of the Appalachian Mountains, extending from the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec to the Green Mountains of Vermont. The range runs from northeast to southwest, forming the southern edge of the St. Lawrence River ...

, the entrance to the ZEC Chapais is located about 15 km southeast of

La Pocatière La Pocatière is a town in the Kamouraska Regional County Municipality in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, La Pocatière had a population of living ...

, on the south shore of the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

. Zec extends to the American border where she shares the border of 12 km; while on the American side (

State of Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

), an equivalent and related protected territory extends south for 5.3 km. ZEC has 12 lakes (six of which operated for sport fishing) and six rivers, all operated for recreative fishing. The main water bodies of the ZEC are: "East Lake" (French: "Lac de l'Est"), the "Five Miles Lake" (French: "Lac des Cinq Milles")," Lost Lake (French: Lac Perdu), the "Lake of the Marais" (French: Lac des Marais), the Tinoute Lake and Lake boiler (French: lac Chaudière). The territory of the ZEC is crossed in its center by the Wolfe River (French:

Rivière du Loup Rivière, La Rivière, or Les Rivières (French for "river") may refer to: Places Belgium * Rivière, Profondeville, a village Canada * La Rivière, Manitoba, a community * Les Rivières (Quebec City), a borough France * La Rivière, Girond ...

, which flows north to go to pour on the southeast of the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

shoreline. Its tributary Manie River (Frenche: "rivière Manie") drains the northeastern part of the territory of the ZEC. Southwest side, near the US border, the "Mountain Tour" (French: "Montagne de la Tour") (elevation: 644 m) and the "Mountain of the Five Miles" (French: "Montagne des Cinq Milles") (elevation: 585 m) peak of the surrounding territory. The three entrance stations are located: Lac Ste Anne,

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; vls, Sint-Omaars) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Saint Audomar, ...

and "Brittany". ZEC has two campsites accessible by car: Lac Ste Anne (southwest) and "Lac Chaudière" (at north).

Wildlife

This controlled harvesting zone has about a dozen small lakes populated mostly of

brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

and

char Char may refer to: People *Char Fontane, American actress *Char Margolis, American spiritualist * René Char (1907–1988), French poet *The Char family of Colombia: ** Fuad Char, Colombian senator ** Alejandro Char Chaljub, mayor of Barranquilla ...

. Major lakes on the ZEC, which are authorized for the recreative fishing are: "étang de l'écluse" (pond of the Lock) (with an access ramp to the water), "Lac Blanc" (White Lake), lake Chaudière, lake Davison, lake Grosse truite (with an access ramp to the water), lake of the President, lake Sainte-Anne and the Little lake Sainte-Anne. Certain rules of daily contingency fishery apply depending on the time of year, the lakes, the type of gear... Anglers can learn about the rules by visiting the official website of the ZEC
Official site of the ZEC
On the territory of the ZEC, the hunting contingency is on for

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 mal ...

, the

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

and small animal. Contingency reflects the particular hunting seasons depending on the species of animal, the type of gear hunting (archery, firearm, collar...), sex of the animals (or calves).

Toponymy

The designation of this area is related to the toponym of the township and village nearby. This gazetteer designation was chosen in memory of

Jean-Charles Chapais Jean-Charles Chapais, (December 2, 1811 – July 17, 1885) was a Canadian Conservative politician, and considered a Father of Canadian Confederation for his participation in the Quebec Conference to determine the form of Canada's governmen ...

(1811-1885), who was a businessman and a Quebec politician. He is considered one of the fathers of the

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Canada, Dom ...

for his participation in the

Quebec Conference, 1864 The Quebec Conference was held from October 10 to 24, 1864, to discuss a proposed Canadian confederation. It was in response to the shift in political ground when the United Kingdom and the United States had come very close to engaging in war w ...

to determine the shape of the future

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

. The toponym "ZEC Chapais" was formalized on August 5, 1982 at the Bank of place names in the

Commission de toponymie du Québec The Commission de toponymie du Québec (English: ''Toponymy Commission of Québec'') is the Government of Québec's public body responsible for cataloging, preserving, making official and publicize Québec's place names and their origins according ...

(Geographical Names Board of Québec)./ToposWeb/fiche.aspx?no_seq=120665 Commission de toponymie du Québec (Geographical Names Board of Quebec) - Bank of place names - Toponym: Zec Chapais
/ref>

Geography

Wildlife

Toponymy

See also

References

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