The Laurentian Private Forest Regional Development Agency

The Agency

The Agency is a non-profit body and like the sixteen other Agencies in Quebec, it is the product of a consensus between the different partners having participated at the Private Forest National Summit in the spring of 1995.

The board of directors of the Agency is composed of regional representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MRN), the forest industry, the municipalities, and the management organisations regrouping woodlot owners.

The Agency manages different programs, the principal being the Financial Aid Program for the Development of Private Woodlots. This program has existed provincially since twenty years, but each Agency now has the capacity to adapt the program according to its specific regional context.

The financial aid program

Sustainable Forest Management for Your Woodlot!

How to benefit from the financial aid program. In order to join the many woodlot owners in the Laurentians already taking advantage of this program, you need to:

1) Own a woodlot of at least 4 hectares (10 acres).

2) Choose a forestry consulting firm accredited by the Agency (see the list on the other side) who will prepare a forest management plan for your woodlot. This plan gives a description of your property and outlines the treatments needed to be done based on the objectives you wish to reach.

Obtain the status of forest producer by registering yourself at a local registration office. One of the accredited firms will be able to guide you through this process.

The Laurentian private forest protection and development plan

Having as its prime objective sustainable forestry management, the Agencys goal is to orient and develop the Laurentian Private Forest by funding technical and financial aid for forestry management treatments based upon the objectives detailed in its Protection and Development Plan

This plan, recently completed, is the Agencys planning tool for the region. It reconciles the different expectations of the woodlot owners, the Agencys partners and the regional economic realities. It also details strategies to promote and guide the efforts to develop wood product production, such as hard wood lumber used in value added manufacturing, as well as those to adequately protect the other important resources of the forest environment.

The Territory

The Laurentian Regional Municipal Counties (MRC):

  • MRC d’Antoine-Labelle
  • MRC d’Argenteuil
  • MRC des Deux-Montagnes
  • MRC des Laurentides
  • MRC des Pays-d’En-Haut
  • MRC de Mirabel
  • MRC de la Rivière-du-Nord
  • MRC Thérèse-de-Blainville