Biodiversity strategy and initiatives

In partnership with researchers from the NSERC–Hydro‑Québec Industrial Research Chair on Control of Tree Growth at UQAM, Hydro‑Québec set up experiments in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville and Saint‑Lambert. The goal is to assess, over a 15-year period, innovative approaches to controlling tree growth. These approaches aim to change vegetation management practices by promoting better coexistence between trees in urban environments and the overhead distribution system.

In fall 2020 and 2021, a total of 360 trees were planted around our administrative center in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville. Six species with different architectural characteristics were selected for this experimental forest. When these trees reach a suitable height, various growth‑management techniques will be carried out to give them a shape that is more compatible with the power system.

These six species are:

• Silver maple (Acer saccharinum)
• Accolade elm (Ulmus Accolade)
• Common hackberry (Celtis occidentalis)
• Thornless honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis)
• Northern catalpa (Catalpa speciosa)
• Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)

Approaches studied

Four approaches to growth management were explored:

• Metal stakes that direct the branches of young trees to grow far enough from the power lines to reduce the need for pruning
• Capping the dominant stem to inhibit the tree’s growth and encourage lateral as opposed to vertical growth (shading method)
• Directional cutting to create a low fork while the tree is still young
• A combination of the above

In Saint-Lambert, a municipality known for its sizeable urban forest, the test bench focuses on six trees that sit directly beneath the distribution system. Testing will start in 2023, as the trees have reached a good height.

The findings will also help Hydro-Québec advise municipalities seeking to increase their tree canopy to select trees that are compatible with the power system and in line with certain biodiversity principles, especially since an urban forest with a variety of species is more resistant to disease, pests and weather events.

Hydro-Québec has an online tool to help property owners position the right tree or shrub in the right spot. The tool recommends species that will not conflict with the power distribution system, specifies safe planting distances and offers a host of other useful information. Following these guidelines will help avoid inconveniences and reduce the number and duration of power outages.

Hydropower facilities can constitute an obstacle when eels migrate upstream, against the current, to reach the lakes and rivers where they mature. The steep slopes created by the dams can prevent eels from reaching their destination. To help them on their way, Hydro-Québec built three eel passes: one in 1997 at the Chambly dam along the Rivière Richelieu to facilitate migration to Lake Champlain and two at the Beauharnois generating station in 2002 and 2004 to facilitate the passage to Lake Ontario. Annual monitoring indicates that the initiatives are effective. Hydro-Québec takes advantage of the eels’ passing to count, measure and tag them to learn more about the species, which researchers still know very little about.

Hydroelectric turbines are also an obstacle to eels travelling downstream when leaving the continent’s lakes and rivers to return to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. Although the vast majority of eels pass through the turbines without difficulty, there is currently no satisfactory way of completely eliminating the risk of turbine mortality in major waterways such as the Fleuve Saint-Laurent (St. Lawrence River). Hydro-Québec has been conducting research in the field since the mid-1990s. To optimize its research efforts, it partnered with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) in 2013 to co-found the Eel Passage Research Center coordinated by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). This has made it possible to test and evaluate different technologies to guide eels downstream and keep them out of turbines. Annual reports on the Center’s work are available to the public. There is good reason to expect promising results from this research in the coming years.

After the Huron-Wendat Nation reported eels in the Rivière Batiscan, Hydro-Québec joined forces with the Nation and other local partners in 2021 to carry out an inventory, which confirmed the presence of 74 eels. Hydro-Québec operated the Saint-Narcisse power facility located in this river until October 2018.

As part of the project to build the Romaine hydroelectric complex, Hydro-Québec proposed to transplant irises in cooperation with the Innu community of Ekuanitshit. The irises are used in traditional Innu medicine and add a new ecological function to the developed wetlands.

The site chosen for the transplantation is a former sand pit that Hydro-Québec converted into a wetland and which had interesting potential to grow Indigenous medicinal plants. Indeed, its location along the Route de la Romaine provided easy access for transplanting and harvesting, which is generally done by the elders of the community.