Our Commitment
Bird Protection Quebec is firmly committed to working for the conservation of birds and their environment and to this end we are active in promoting actions that look after the places our birds inhabit.
- We have a long history of activism in bird conservation issues. However, we need to ensure that issues we support are scientifically justifiable. For example, anyone wanting to prevent builders draining a marsh and filling it with condos needs to be able to prove that the place is worth saving and that usually means having a scientifically valid inventory of the species that live in and visit the site – we can help with that information gathering.
- We work closely with organisations such as the Canadian Wildlife Service in Quebec, the Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Nature Canada, Nature Québec, Bird Studies Canada, Regroupment QuebecOiseaux and a host of other such groups
- We are fortunate to be in the position of owning various important birding sites around Quebec and will doubtless add more sanctuaries to our collection over the years
- We annually give significant sums of money as grants to scientific research projects concerning the ornithology of Quebec
- We encourage the public to take part in projects such as Feederwatch, the Marsh Monitoring programme and surveys in our own sanctuaries and other natural areas etc and collect bird census data for the large, continent-wide databases that are of such value to the people who need this data for their investigations
- We conduct two annual Christmas Bird Counts (a survey that passed its hundredth anniversary recently) – one centred on Montreal and one on Hudson. The continuity of data, year by year, from these counts (which are great fun by the way – come and join us) is of inestimable value in determining which areas need our concern and protection
- These are just some examples of what we do – our commitment to the conservation movement is firm and the bed-rock of our mission
- We also draw your attention to the hundred or so Important Bird Areas in Quebec … Nature Québec and its partners have launched a multimedia kit to promote the hundred or so Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Québec. This kit, available online at www.naturequebec.qc.ca/zico/ (in French only), comprises a description of the program, site maps, descriptive sheets for each site, conservation plans, references, and bird conservation web links. This practical kit will be used to sensitize and increase awareness among the public, nature lovers, conservation groups, and local authorities.
An important element of conservation work is the work done by the many banding stations across the continent and we work especially closely with the McGill Bird Observatory situated in the west of Montreal island adjacent to the Morgan Arboretum and the Bird Observatory at Tadoussac
