The Petite-Rivière-Godbout Old Forest () is a protected area of old-growth forest in the

Côte-Nord Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada. The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...

region of Quebec, classified as an exceptional forest ecosystem.

Location

The Petite-Rivière-Godbout Old Forest is in the municipality of Gobdbout in the

Manicouagan Regional County Municipality Manicouagan () is a regional county municipality in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River with its seat in Baie-Comeau. It was created in 1981, and named after the Manicouagan River. ...

. It is about northwest of the village of Godbout on the north shore of the

Estuary of Saint Lawrence The St. Lawrence River Estuary is an estuary at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. It stretches 655 km from west to east, from the outlet of Lake Saint Pierre to Pointe-des-Monts, where it becomes the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Quebec, Canada. ...

. The forest is administered by Quebecʻs Ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Parks, Forest Environment Directorate. It was designated old-growth forest in 2003, and has IUCN management category III. The forest has an area of . The terrain is moderately rugged, with tall hills covered by thin

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

and many rocky escarpments. The forest is on the southern slope of a steep hill looking over the Rat Musqué Lake and the Little Godbout River (Petite rivière Godbout). A map of the

Ecological regions of Quebec The Ecological regions of Quebec are regions with specific types of vegetation and climates as defined by the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks. Given the size of this huge province, there is wide variation from the temperate deciduou ...

places the Gobout area in ecological region 5g Hautes collines de Baie-Comeau — Sept-Îles in the eastern fir/white birch domain of the boreal zone.

Flora

The Petite-Rivière-Godbout Old Forest is made up of a few stands dominated by northern white-cedar (''Thuja occidentalis''), which is rare in the Côte-Nord. Usually cedars are found in areas of deciduous and mixed forest. Dry cedar groves growing on rock are even rarer. Other trees are

balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

(''Abies balsamea''),

black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of Newfoundland and Labrador and is tha ...

(''Picea mariana'') and

white birch White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wavelen ...

(''Betula papyrifera''). The forest has never been developed or disturbed by human activities, and for a long time has not suffered from severe natural disturbances such as fire, high winds or insect infestations. The older cedar trees are 300 to 400 years old. The trunks of the dominant trees have an average diameter of and height of , while the mature fir stands surrounding the forest are no more than high. The regeneration stratum of the forest contains a good proportion of cedars, balsam fir and white birch, so the cedars seem well established. Due to their strength and longevity the cedars should continue to dominate the upper strata of the forest. Shrubs include mountain maple (''Acer spicatum'') and Canada yew (''Taxus canadensis''). In some places the yews are very abundant. The herbaceous layer includes mountain woodsorrel (''Oxalis montana''), shining firmoss (''Huperzia lucidula''), Canadian bunchberry (''Cornus canadensis''), threeleaf goldthread (''Coptis trifolia''), starflower (''Trientalis borealis''), spinulose woodfern (''Dryopteris carthusiana'') and blue-bead lily (''Clintonia borealis''). Groundcover includes several common species of mosses, usually sparse.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petite-Rivière-Godbout Old Forest Exceptional forest ecosystems of Quebec Protected areas of Côte-Nord