Forest fire victims #344 - June 2023
Jacques grew up in the boreal forest. He trapped and hunted there before roads began to wind their way through the spruce trees. These roads now allow him to reach his trapping grounds in less than 30 minutes by car with his whole family, unlike the nearly 6 hours of canoeing and portaging it used to take when he was younger. It was in the heart of his 100 square kilometers of freedom that he built his childhood dream: a log cabin that would see several additions added to its frame over the years by subsequent generations. On June 2, 2023, Jacques had to leave his cabin in the afternoon, as ashes began to rain down on the lake where his daughter had also built her dream camp. The trapper had no idea that his forest and all the projects he had spent a lifetime building would go up in smoke, tearing away the family's future plans and access to nature overnight.
The camp that Jacques had spent nearly 40 years building, along with his daughter Anik's camp, were both burnt to the ground. Of this ideal, there remains only a few precious photos preserved in a box tucked away in the house in Lebel-sur-Quévillon. Guylaine, Jacques's sweetheart who shared all those years of creating and living this dream with him, recalls the good times they spent there not without emotion. Countless were the days working on the property, the Christmas family gatherings, the hockey tournaments on the skating rink in front of the chalet crowned with three skylights that allowed them to listen to the peaceful sound of the river flowing nearby.
Their daughter Anik also feels she has lost much more than a roof over her head. Like many Quévillonnais, she loves her region for its proximity to the forest, and it's the tradition of meeting there that she misses the most.
"It's a way of life, it's a part of us. It allows us to be ourselves, to live in tune with nature, and if we feel like screaming at the top of our lungs to hear our own echo, we can."For Jacques, the grief of losing access to his land is acute.
“To spend almost a year without a camp is a nightmare”
The absence is all the more poignant as the family busies themselves with picking up the pieces of their shattered dream. Each return to the land brings back the cruelty of the heavily damaged panorama, once enchanting. The scene is brutal, the material losses incalculable, and the forest wounded. The charred stumps all the way down to the roots in the soil undermine Jacques' motivation. He has always been an integral part of this forest and normally knows how to blend in with the trees to live in harmony with his surroundings.
“The sight of an animal in its natural habitat is a treasure beyond measure. That’s what brought me here"
His camp allowed him to put down roots in this landscape, to appreciate the richness of the land, and to become a millionaire in his own way. He remembers the first day he hauled timber across the lake with his father so he could build a Scandinavian frame, then hand-sawing each log to erect, year after year, a camp worthy of the name. It was the place that would allow him to live his passion and roam the woods he cherished, setting his marten traps and concocting his plans to outwit the wolf.
Jacques believes he won't be able to trap as much as before. While he used to catch around twenty martens a year, during the fall following the fire, he caught almost none and quickly decided to stop his activity to allow this climbing carnivore, an inhabitant of mature forests, to recover from the tragedy as well. The trapper is now looking to the future but remains on his guard.
“The lingering fear of the next disaster casts a shadow over our lives. Walking through the charred remains feels like crunching on cornflakes, a stark reminder of the ever-present danger. The sight of flames dancing through the treetops sends shivers down our spines. It's a wake-up call, a reminder of the fragility of our environment."
As the trio plans the reconstruction of the family camp, green shoots push their way through the thick soot on the ground and the sound of Jacques' saw can be heard tearing through the silence, as if life is resuming in the heart of the forest.
