Canada Border Services Agency helping to protect biodiversity along Canada’s border… and beyond!

Away from the hustle and bustle of year-round training, there is an 8.45-hectare maple and hardwood forest along the back of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) College’s Main Campus. Located in Rigaud, Quebec, the Agency's training centre provides ongoing training and development to recruits, officer trainees, border services officers, and detector dogs.

When staff first recognized the ecological importance of the maple grove forest on the campus, they knew they wanted to protect it. From there, Gillian Toothill, Environmental Analyst, and the CBSA Environmental Operations team set out to see what they could do.

“Historically, the CBSA is known as an agency that helps protect Canadian biodiversity at our border,” said Gillian. “We wanted to explore opportunities to think outside the box and find ways to benefit biodiversity in other places too.”

“The CBSA doesn’t own or manage massive parcels of land, so we started looking more closely at the College Main Campus in Rigaud, Quebec,” said Gillian. “We went through the conservation areas screening process with assistance from Environment and Climate Change Canada, and they came back with some recommendations. We set out to action those points because we were very committed to seeing this through.”

Although the CBSA manages most of the property as a training facility, they have put a management plan in place to ensure the forest remains intact and is beneficial to the conservation of biodiversity in the area.

“This is a small but significant landscape,” said Olaf Jensen, Director of Protected Areas, Environment and Climate Change Canada. “Almost halfway between Ottawa and Montreal, the Rigaud Main Campus is flanked by Rigaud Mountain and the Ottawa River in an area that is rich with biodiversity. This undertaking represents a commitment from the CBSA to ensure the area continues to be managed in a way that supports local biodiversity conservation.”

In late 2022, the Agency officially recognized the College Main Campus in Rigaud as an Other Effective area-based Conservation Measure and ECCC entered it into Canada’s Protected and Conserved Areas Database. This means the forest is officially contributing to the Government of Canada’s goals to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and to conserve 30% of lands and waters in Canada by 2030.

But, the CBSA didn’t stop there!

They took their conservation commitment a step further by starting the process of commissioning a three-phased wildlife study with local consultants. This process includes engaging with local Indigenous communities to get a better understanding of the flora and fauna that reside in the Rigaud Main Campus forest. Once complete, the CBSA will use the findings from this study to update its management plan to actively manage the habitat for species at risk in the area.

“The dedication and ongoing commitment the CBSA has shown for biodiversity conservation has been commendable,” said Olaf. “They are a fantastic example of a federal agency thinking bigger than their day-to-day mandate, to help serve greater Government of Canada conservation goals. It has been a pleasure working with them, and we hope their experience can show other government departments what’s possible when we all work together.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada will continue to make progress on important domestic and international conservation goals by working with other federal departments and agencies such as the CBSA. Together, we can make a real difference for biodiversity conservation in Canada.