It took a community
to save Tamaracouta

Collaboration between the NCC and the Municipality of Mille-Isles now protects nearly 300 hectares

By Carole Reed

June 4, 2026

At the May 20 Nature Conservancy Canada (NCC) Press Conference, Quebec VP associate Joel Bonin announced that “residents of Mille-Isles and the surrounding area will be able to continue enjoying the iconic site of Lac Tamaracouta, now protected for future generations.”

The event at the historic Camp Tamaracouta was essentially a celebration of what grassroots citizens and environmental movements can achieve when they work together toward a common goal, and how municipal, provincial and federal politicians, collaborating with businessmen, can protect heritage land for future generations.

A collaboration between the NCC and the Municipality of Mille-Isles now protects nearly 300 hectares in the Laurentians. The rest of the ecosystem, 450 h, including Lake Tamaracouta, is a campsite.

Residents of Mille-Isles and the surrounding area will be able to continue enjoying the iconic site of Lac Tamaracouta, now protected for future generations.

– Joel Bonin, Quebec VP associate, Nature Conservancy Canada (NCC)

Éric Desroches, the businessman who bought the campsite, told me that he is reaching out to schools and colleges interested in ecology programs. While he has not finalized his plans, he is considering creating a farm on the south side of Tamaracouta Road to gain hands-on experience raising farm animals and crops. He also wants to help revitalize scouting in Quebec.

In fact, Éric has already opened the camp to Scouts Canada. Robert Schmitt, a member of the Scouts’ Quebec Council, is booking camps for scouts of all ages. This summer, only the campground is available. The cabooses, cabins and other outbuildings will be under repair. And the trails on the north side are off limits while the NCC and Mille-Isles work together to clean them to ensure safe public access.

The Mille-Isles community celebrates the rebirth of Tamaracouta with the Nature Conservancy and other environmental groups, federal and provincial politicians, and the new camp director

The NCC has identified the Lower Laurentians as a region at risk of disappearing forever if overdeveloped. Claire Ducharme, Quebec Vice-President, pointed out that Tamaracouta is at the heart of an eco-corridor stretching from Oka to Mont Tremblant. The entire eco-corridor needs to be protected to ensure that large wildlife, such as moose, lynx, and wolves, can continue to exist in the Laurentians.

Claire is collaborating with Eric Desroches to protect the 300 hectares of pristine conservation land and to provide public access to it. Maintaining the health of the ecosystem is their shared priority.

Catherine Lefebvre, project manager for the NCC, explained that Mile-Isles is partnering with the Nature Conservancy to maintain trails in the conservation section, and that Mile-Isles and the NCC are working with M. Desroches to create an environmental education hub within easy driving distance of Montreal.

Catherine described the project as a “win/win” for all involved.

Waterfall north of Lake Tamaracouta

Natalie Provost, the federal Secretary of State for Nature, believes that the fight for Tamaracouta is a central project in Canada. She believes in the model of an environmental camp, and she recognizes the community’s power to protect nature. To her, the rebirth of Tamaracouta demonstrates what community groups can do when they partner with politicians and businesspeople to keep the planet healthy in a world where we are losing water quality and biodiversity.

Agnès Grondin, CAQ Member for Argenteuil, gave homage to the land, the first love of all the young people who have camped and hiked the trails for over 100 years. The camp is at the heart of the Bonniebrook/Lac des Bec Scie eco-corridor, which needs to be protected from development in its entirety.

And she gave a shout-out to Charlie MacLeod, co-president of the Green Coalition, and Matt Madison, biologist and educator.

‘The NCC has identified the Lower Laurentians as a region at risk of disappearing forever if overdeveloped. Claire Ducharme, Quebec Vice-President, pointed out that Tamaracouta is at the heart of an eco-corridor stretching from Oka to Mont Tremblant.’

The Tamaracouta Environmental Sciences Project

In the summer and early fall of 2013, Agnès was one of the project partners conducting an environmental characterization and feasibility study of the Tamaracouta Scout Reserve. Charlie MacLeod, then head of the Tamaracouta Environmental Sciences Center, managed the project in partnership with Matt Madison and forest engineer Bill Pollock.

In 2011, Charlie envisioned a project that would generate revenue for the struggling scout camp: an environmental program in the ecologically rich confluence of Laurentian and Great Lakes forests that comprised what was then the Tamaracouta Scout Reserve (TSR).

The project included an environmental assessment, a forest management plan, and an environmental camp feasibility study, all conducted by four of Matt Madison’s students in the master’s program in Environmental Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke.

All three reports were sent to Scouts Canada in 2015. Scouts Canada never acknowledged receiving them. It seems Scouts Canada had other plans for the camp.

Charlie, Matt, and Agnès have been working to conserve the ecosystem ever since.

After TSR closed in November 2018, Charlie mobilized local citizens’ and environmental groups. The Green Coalition worked with Friends of Tamaracouta, Les Partenaires du Tamaracouta et de ses environs and l’Association du Lac Tamaracouta. Our mandate was “to protect, preserve and conserve in perpetuity, for the benefits of the present and future inhabitants of the local communities and related public interests, natural environments and landscapes with high ecological, heritage and aesthetic value located in the region of the lake Tamaracouta in Mille-Isles, Quebec.”

Charlie Macleod, Tom Mulcair, Carole Reed, Ed Orava and Manon Loiselle – Image: Lyne Lanthier

The private ceremony

Shortly after Camp Tamaracouta closed, Charlie promised former Quebec environment minister Tom Mulcair that he would fight to protect the camp from development.

In July 2025, Charlie made good on that promise.

In his May 26 Gazette column A Big Win for Biodiversity in the Laurentians, Tom Mulcair thanked Charlie.

Tom also mentioned “a smaller ceremony” that he and his wife, Catherine, attended after the press conference.

The private ceremony was organized by Manon Loiselle, president of Les Partenaires, and by Ed Orava, former president of Scouts Inc, the camp’s holding company prior to its sale.

Present along with Manon, Ed, Tom and Catherine were Lyne Lanthier, president of the Tamaracouta Lake Association, and fellow Green Coalition board members Dave Fletcher, Gareth Richardson, Steve Perry and co-president Carole Reed.

Ed Orava commissioned the carving from renowned Quebec wood carver Gaetan Hovington to thank Charlie for his years of dedicated service to Camp Tamaracouta and to celebrate the realization of Charlie’s vision for the camp.

At that ceremony, Manon presented Charlie with a low relief of Lake Tamaracouta carved in wood.

Ed Orava commissioned the carving from renowned Quebec wood carver Gaetan Hovington to thank Charlie for his years of dedicated service to Camp Tamaracouta and to celebrate the realization of Charlie’s vision for the camp.

According to Tom, “It was a fitting reminder that, in addition to the role of the larger established groups, it’s often the generous hard work of volunteers that gets things done.”

A master plan for protected properties around Lake Tamaracouta

And in case you were wondering what happened to those reports, Charlie gave copies of the forestry, environmental and eco-camp feasibility studies to the Nature Conservancy and to Éric Desroches.

The reports were discussed at the May 29 inaugural workshop of the advisory committee for the Master Plan for Protected Properties around Lake Tamaracouta, a collaboration of NCC, the town of Mille-Isles and Éco-corridors Laurentiens. Éric Desroches is on the committee, along with Charlie MacLeod, Matt Madison, Manon Loiselle and Lyne Lanthier.

Fifteen years of hard work are finally coming to fruition.

Feature image: view of Lake Tamaracouta, courtesy of Friends of Tamaracouta
Other images: courtesy of Carole Reed

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Carole Reed spent her childhood in Pointe Claire, climbing trees, playing in the woods, and biking through farmland. She became an environmentalist in 1972 after reading Silent Spring. Now retired from teaching, she is devoting the rest of her life to saving the planet for her great-grandchildren.