GUIDE TO THE APPLICATION OF THE REGULATION RESPECTING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF FORESTS IN THE DOMAIN OF THE STATE

 

Complete guide

Chapter V – Roads, sandpits and forest infrastructures
Division II – Roads
§2. Prohibited construction, improvement or repair

Section 68

The repair of a road, other than a felling or hauling trail or other than a trail not intended for motorized all-terrain vehicles, is prohibited within 60 m from an open peat bog with a pond, a marsh, a riparian swamp, a lake or a permanent watercourse and within 30 m from an intermittent watercourse.

1

Objectives

  • To preserve the integrity of an aquatic, wetland or riparian environment
  • To avoid carrying sediment into an aquatic, wetland or riparian environment
  • To obtain the operational flexibility required for certain forest development activities

Additional information

The distance (60 m or 30 m) is calculated based on the outermost limit of the stream’s ecotone. When present, the various open environments (open bog with pond, riparian shrub swamp) are part of the ecotone of the stream, lake or marsh.

Despite the first paragraph, the repair of a road is allowed in the environments referred to in that paragraph where all the following conditions are met:

  1. no tree cutting is carried out in the strip of woodland referred to in section 27, except the place occupied by the roadway, shoulders, ditches and embankments of the road under repair;
  2. no logging machine travels in the strip of woodland referred to in section 27, except the place occupied by the roadway, shoulders, ditches and embankments of the road under repair;
  3. the repair work is not carried out from 15 December to 31 March;
  4. the road surface is profiled so that the runoff leaves the roadway on the side opposite to the environment to be protected;
  5. the water flowing at the foot of the embankments of a road is diverted towards vegetation areas more than 20 m away from the environment to be protected to prevent sediments from being carried into the environment or, if that condition cannot be met, settling ponds are built;
  6. measures are taken during the repair of the road to prevent at all times sediments from being carried into the environment to be protected.

2

Objectives

  • To preserve the integrity of an aquatic, wetland or riparian environment
  • To avoid carrying sediment into an aquatic, wetland or riparian environment
  • To provide access to the territory

Additional information

Repair work on a road, bridge or culvert is governed by several sections of the Regulation. However, repair work is not included in the types of work (construction, improvement or closure of a multi-purpose road) that require authorization under the Sustainable Forest Development Act This link opens a new window.