Reserve écologique du Mont-Gosford
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Reserve écologique du Mont-Gosford
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| location | Le Granit , Quebec, Canada | |
| WDPA ID | 555569773 | |
| FFH area | 3.068 km² | |
| Geographical location | 45 ° 18 ′ N , 70 ° 53 ′ W | |
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| Sea level | from 720 m to 1183 m | |
| Setup date | 2009 | |
| administration | MDDEP | |
The Réserve écologique du Mont-Gosford is a 306.78 hectare protected area established in 2009 in the southern Canadian province of Québec , in the regional county municipality of Le Granit in the Estrie region . It is close to Saint-Augustin-de-Woburn , often simply called Woburn. It includes the north and west slopes of the 1183 m high Mont Gosford, and extends to a height of 720 m. The reserve represents the ecology of the Montagnes Blanches, and thus one of the five natural regions of the northern Appalachians . In 1978 the Gosford was added to the ZEC Louise-Gosford , an area that was open to the public, but where hunting and fishing restrictions were enforced. Because of the rare Bicknell's thrush , which only occurs in northeastern North America , it also became a bird sanctuary.
Gosford Mountain is the highest point in southern Québec and the seventh highest in the province. The soils there are extremely thin and consist of glacial till . The area is unique in that it was part of the so-called Chain Lakes of the Appalachians, which were geologically extremely puzzling. In the Paleozoic , about 685 to 483 million years ago, sediments were deposited in an arch of a basin on the west bank of the Iapetus Ocean . About 470 million years ago, magma masses associated with the formation of the arch intruded and led to the partial merging of the sediments and their conversion into diatexites (see Anatexis ). The Gosford is a continuation of the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Maine , the highest point of which is Mount Washington at 1917 m .
The reserve is located in the bioclimatic zone of the érablière à bouleau jaune. The flora and fauna show numerous characteristics of zones further north, as they exist at a height of up to 720 m. As a result, the vegetation is predominantly dominated by conifers . The rare stocks of Oxalis montana , which belongs to the sorrel family, can be found in the area above 950 m . American red spruce is more likely to grow on steeper slopes . Such vegetation hardly exists in the Laurentides and the Gaspésie , but it represents an equivalent of the vegetation in the higher regions of the New England Appalachian region. Further below, next to the sapinière de sapin baumier à bouleau blanc, there are forest areas, i.e. fir forest with paper birches, also stocks of balsam fir . These types are representative of the mountain ranges of the area. The sapinière de sapin à oxalide des montagnes and the balsam fir are rare in the entire province of Québec. The tree ecology is shared by the reserve with the nearby Réserve écologique Samuel-Brisson . On the surface, the two areas are therefore complementary, but Samuel-Brisson is not only located in another natural province (province naturelle), namely in Plateau d'Estrie-Beauce, but also has a completely different geological situation. In addition, Gosford is the only protected region in the Montagnes Blanches.
Rare representatives of the bird world are the pine grouse (tétras du Canada), the titmouse (mésangeai du Canada), the foxhammer (bruant fauve) and the striped warbler (paruline rayée). The Bicknell's Thrush , named after Eugene P. Bicknell (1859–1925), an American ornithologist and botanist, nests in the reserve. In Québec it is considered an endangered (vulnérable) bird species. It is considered threatened in Canada.
Web links
- Reserve écologique du Mont-Gosford. Plan de conservation , government site