Staff from the Montreal Canadiens were at the Gault Nature Reserve last month to lend a hand planting over 2,000 trees
Cheered on by their faithful mascot Youppi, more than 40 willing workers from the Habs were joined by community volunteers in rehabilitating a hectare of McGill’s spectacular living laboratory at Mont Saint-Hilaire. Their efforts contributed to a wider program of land management at the Reserve, home to some of the last remaining tracts of untouched hardwood forest in North America.
McGill’s David Maneli, Associate Director of the Gault Reserve, said the work of volunteers like these is a vital piece in fulfilling the Reserve’s conservation mission.
“Brigadier Gault, the man who bequeathed this extraordinary place to McGill some 60 years ago, wished for it to be preserved for the benefit of generations to come,” Maneli said.
“That’s exactly what McGill and our partner, the Centre de la Nature de Mont Saint-Hilaire, are doing. And the help we get from volunteers like these is priceless.”
The tree-planting day received financial and logistic support from local businesses such as the Carrière de Mont-Saint-Hilaire, as well as the Ville de Mont-Saint-Hilaire and One Tree Planted, a community organization dedicated to revegetation projects in Quebec.
About the Gault Nature Reserve
A favourite destination for nature lovers all year round, the Gault Reserve is also a McGill field station. Academic activities at Gault range from undergraduate field courses in ecology and physical geography to cutting-edge research on freshwater ecosystems, climate change, and biodiversity.