Hosted by the Friends of Chats Falls, the event was a way of promoting the area’s natural beauty, while educating locals on the importance of preserving its ecosystem.

Led by former biologist with the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks and a member of the Ornithologist Club of the Outaouais, Daniel Toussaint, the presentation walked the audience through a hydrographic and geomorphologic profile of the area, before diving into some of its native species and the importance of preserving them.

According to Friends of Chats Falls’ treasurer Robert Baser, the organization invited Toussaint because of his expertise and experiences researching species from the Pontiac which include rarities that don’t exist anywhere else in the province.

“He’s essentially an expert in the field of the natural world,” Baser said.

Scheduled at 2 p.m., attendees gathered inside the hall around 15 minutes before to socialize and grab some snacks before getting the presentation underway.

Proceedings began with a word of welcome from Friends of Chats Falls board member Deborah Powell where she thanked everyone for attending and introduced the event’s special guest.

Throughout the presentation, attendees regularly asked question, expressed their opinions and provided insight on what they knew about the area’s natural wealth.

Toussaint followed up by describing a number of species from the area, including several types of birds, reptiles and mammals, pointing to the area’s many different types of habitats as crucial to it natural wealth.

“The area has a very diversified mosaic of habitats, which means it supports a very rich biodiversity,” he said.

Toussaint closed the presentation by showing attendees a list of species under varying conservation statuses as well as to protect wildlife in the surrounding area. He noted that the Chats Falls area has five wildlife habitats under legal protection and that as many as 23 at-risk species live in the area.

For Baser, the most interesting part of the presentation was when Toussaint spoke about at-risk species of turtles, which prompted him to take action on the matter.

Baser explained that, in the last few years, he’s noticed a lot of turtles had been laying eggs near his property’s gravel parking lot. However, after seeing racoons raiding and digging them out, he asked Toussaint for an ideal solution to make sure the turtles would survive and grow their population.

“He’ll send me information on how to build a kind of shield around the area where they’re hatching their eggs,” he said. “So, I decided that I’m going to do that next spring. My wife in particular is keen on doing that. We took it to heart and now we want to help the turtles out a little bit.”

With a sizeable crowd on hand for the event, Baser was delighted with the overall turnout, noting that he expected the attendance to be much lower.

“It was nice Sunday afternoon,” he said. “We were a little worried that there may be some distractions. But a good number of people came out.”

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