资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

From: Environment and Climate Change Canada

On October 15, 2020, Débroussaillage Québec and Forestière des Amériques Inc. were each fined $20,000, for a total of $40,000, at the Longueuil courthouse. Each company pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Emergency Order for the Protection of the Western Chorus Frog (the Emergency Order) in contravention of the Species at Risk Act. The companies pleaded guilty to the charge of carrying out a prohibited activity, namely pruning vegetation— including trees, shrubs, and bushes—in a sensitive area.

• In Canada, the western chorus frog is found in southern Ontario and in the Montérégie and Outaouais regions of Quebec. The species is divided into two populations. The Carolinian population, in southwestern Ontario, is not at risk. The second population—the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence, and the Canadian Shield population—includes individuals from other regions of Ontario and from Quebec. Since 2010, this population has been listed as threatened in Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act.
  
• Western chorus frog populations have undergone serious declines in both Quebec and Ontario. Habitat loss and degradation are the main threats to the species. In Quebec, in the Montérégie region, a decrease of over 90 percent in the species’ historical range was noted in 2009, while in the Outaouais region, over 30 percent of inhabited sites have disappeared since 1993.
• Habitat destruction in suburban areas of southwestern Quebec is happening so quickly that populations may disappear from these areas by 2030. In these regions, the main threats to western chorus frog habitat are rapid residential and industrial development and agricultural intensification, such as the conversion of pastureland to grain crops. Many breeding sites in agricultural areas are also at risk of being contaminated by pesticides or fertilizers.
• The area covered by the Emergency Order consists of approximately 2 km2 of partially developed land in the municipalities of La Prairie, Candiac, and Saint-Philippe, on the outskirts of Montréal, Quebec. The main purpose of the Emergency Order is to prevent the loss or degradation of the habitat that the western chorus frog needs to grow and reproduce.