Espace La Rive: The sand disappeared very quickly

The ZIP Saguenay-Charlevoix Commission was consulted prior to the Espace La Rive project and was to be involved in the revegetation of the bank after sand recharging. However, it was not possible to plant native plants that would have made it possible to “retain” the sand, at least partially, before it was washed away by the tides.

“The support started in 2018. There was a request from the municipality to implement restoration techniques for the square, both in the face of the problem of invasive phragmites, and erosion. “ZIP submitted a study to propose a review of the literature on these two topics,” notes Eleonore Cosson, from Saguenay-Charlevoix ZIP. The latter is the project coordinator for the Charlevoix sector.

After submitting this study, the municipality chose to refill the sand. “The plan was to plant the plants after recharging, but when they put in the sand, they disappeared almost immediately with the tide. We didn't have time to replant what was planned, namely rose bushes at the top of the dam and sand limes, which are plants with skeletal roots that resist the tide.” And the carrots we didn't even have time to order the plants,” explains M^I Kosun.

The revegetation process promised to be very expensive. “Since the sand did not remain for a week and the ability of the plants that could have been planted to retain the sand was not guaranteed, the municipality probably did not want to throw money away on the windows…”

The ZIP Committee is careful not to express its opinion on the ways the municipality runs things. However, theft is not among the practices encouraged by the organization, except when the safety of local residents is at risk. “Riprap is not a long-lasting technology either, the walls have to be maintained and rebuilt. There are other solutions. For our part, we are not playing in infrastructure like riprap, it is not in our expertise. We are making more effort in the field of plant technology, in order to promote The most natural environment possible,” explains M.^I Kosun.

Furthermore, cliffs are structures that can have an impact on the foreshore environment.

“In Espace la Rive, the neighbors around them have a riprap effect and it has a bowl effect. Aftershocks become more difficult with the rebound effect,” she concluded.