HISTORY

"We stowed Île aux Basques on the port side, it took its name from what whaling used to be done there. We can still see old furnaces to make oil from it. On the south, having calmed down, we anchored across Île aux Pommes, where there is no habitation: this is what we call it because of the surprising quantity of a creeping plant that produces a small red fruit, similar in shape to the one known in the southern provinces of France under the name of azerole. In the spring, this fruit is in its maturity with a delicious taste highly esteemed by savages and Canadians. We make good liquor out of it. Over the three hours, we sailed and stowed the Saguenay and Tadoussac rivers to starboard. »

 

General Louis Joseph de Montcalm, May 7, 1756.

A small island with a great history

Île aux Pommes was part of the seigneury of Isle-Verte from the time of New France until 1816. Indeed, on February 12, 1816, the lords Jean-Baptiste Côté and Barthélémy Côté granted Pierre Sébastien Ouellette Île aux Pommes with all its flats, hunting and fishing rights on and around. This transaction granted seigneurial rights in connection with Île aux Pommes and thus became property in the true sense of the word.

Father Cuckoo, hermit of Île aux Pommes

On February 12, 1855, Anselme Bélisle père bought Île aux Pommes. A farmer, he sells the produce from his farm on the island, where he built a small house, supplying pilots and schooner captains. Anselme son, widower, nicknamed "Father Cuckoo", settles in this cottage almost eight months a year, brings a few chickens with him, sets up a fishing fascine and a garden and, in turn, welcomes, with open arms, sailors and picnickers on his island.

The pilots of the Maison de la Trinité in Quebec City know Father Coucou well. The pilot is then a self-employed worker and the competition is strong. Adventurous but lucrative profession, pilots use their own schooner or sailboat and set off down the river to meet ocean-going ships. Ready for anything, these pilots did not hesitate to leave the harbours, in difficult weather conditions, to be the first to offer their services to the ship going up the river to Quebec City.

After guiding the tall ships to the port of Quebec, the pilots descended the St. Lawrence and ran aground, sheltered, on Île aux Pommes, without fear of the weather conditions, convinced of Father Coucou's warm welcome. Their 16 to 22-foot long open boats, equipped with one or two masts equipped with auric sails, ran aground easily. Anselme Bélisle, Father Coucou, died in 1900.

Sinking of the Wandrahm

Île aux Pommes experienced only one shipwreck, the Wandrahm. On May 14, 1893, due to misaligned nautical instruments, the Wandrahm, a steamer of the Hamburg American Packet Company, ran aground on Île aux Pommes. No loss of life was reported and 680 German immigrants arrived on the island.

This 2578-ton ship, 314 feet long and 39 feet wide, built in Germany in 1890, had a cruising speed of 11 knots. According to the data sheets, 560 passengers were on board; 10 in first class and 550 in second and third class. Newspapers of the time, including the Quebec Morning Chronicle of May 19, 1893, reported 680 passengers during the grounding.

No deaths were reported following the sinking; the passengers left to spend four days on the island. The company sent a ship from Quebec City to rescue them and take them to the quarantine station on Grosse-Île, and the ship, in pitiful condition, made its way to Quebec City, toué, and arrived at its destination 11 days later.

The Gaudreau-Déry family becomes the owner and collaborates in science

In 1927, Dr. Stanislas Gaudreau acquired Île aux Pommes at the suggestion of his brother-in-law, Dr. David-Alexis Déry. Dentists in Quebec City, the two men share the same passion for nature and science. Due to poaching during the spring duck nesting season on Île aux Pommes, Île-aux-Basques, and the Razades Islands, Dr. Déry founded, in 1920, with other naturalists and specialists, the Société Provancher whose mandate was to promote the dissemination of natural history knowledge, promote well-directed information and protect the winged fauna of the Razades and Île aux Basques islands.

The founders: notables from Quebec City including: Father Philéas-Joseph Filion, professor of chemistry and future rector of Laval University; Father Alexandre Vachon, professor of chemistry at Laval University, Charles-Eusèbe Dionne, experienced naturalist and curator of the Musée de l'Université Laval; Joseph-Émile Bernier, doctor and fisheries inspector for the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and of course, David-Alexis Déry and Stanislas Gaudreau.

Thus, in the same spirit of preservation, he convinced his brother-in-law to buy Île aux Pommes in 1927. He then noticed a progressive invasion of gulls and double-crested cormorants.

At the same time, following the successful creation of the Provancher Society, David-Alexis Déry, Abbots Filion and Vachon, Dr. Bernier and eventually Dr. Georges Préfontaine recommended research in marine biology in the St. Lawrence and the creation of oceanographic laboratories in Quebec.

For its part, Université Laval wishes to establish a biological institute. She asked Drs. Déry and Préfontaine to establish contacts and visit American laboratories. They will travel to Cambridge, Woods Hole, Boston and New York.

In April 1931, the St. Lawrence Biological Station was created to study the "physical, chemical and biological conditions of the St. Lawrence, to acquire "an accurate knowledge of the currents that flow through it" and to study the "migration of fish".

In 1931, the renowned botanist Brother Marie-Victorin carried out his studies on the vegetation of Île aux Pommes. He wrote the Florule phanérogamique de l'Île aux Pommes in the report of the St. Lawrence Biological Station. He makes the same observations on behalf of Société Provancher on the flowers of Île aux Basques and the two Razades.

In addition, Dr. Déry is one of the first to contribute to migration studies, participating in bird banding in Canada. In the annual reports of the Société Provancher, he regularly wrote reports on the number of young herring gulls ringed on the Razades. A few decades later, researchers Gaston Moisan and J-M. Poulin published an article in the journal Le Naturaliste Canadien in 1967 on the migration and mortality rate of Razade Island gulls. Without the approximately 4,965 young gulls banded by Dr. Déry between 1933 and 1939, this study would not have been possible.

His reputation leads him to work with the greatest. An ornithologist recognized by the North American scientific community, he participates in numerous international conferences where he amicably meets some of the world's most renowned ornithologists such as Allan Cruikshank, John Bichard May and the American Roger Tory Peterson.

On February 13, 1946, Stanislas Gaudreau sold the island's property to David-Alexis Déry. Upon his death, David-Alexis Déry left the island to his wife Blanche Gagnon-Déry who signed the deed of ownership on May 12, 1959. She sold her island to her eldest son Stanislas Déry on June 11, 1971.

A gloomy period for Île aux Pommes

Since the 1920s, the island's environment has been deteriorating, while thousands of seabirds, which feed on commercial fishing residues, have been present throughout the estuary. The seabird population on the island peaked in the 1950s when 20,000 gulls and several thousand cormorants, including young nesting birds, occupied Île aux Pommes.

However, these two birds, in their own way, are damaging the island's environment and the growth of these birds' populations is a threat to the natural environment. Gulls, predators of ducks, and more precisely of eggs and ducklings, endanger the annual nesting of eider ducks and as for cormorants, their basic excrements irreparably damage the vegetation making the soil unsuitable for diversified and abundant vegetation. Moreover, the omnipresence of these birds makes the environment inhospitable to human presence. The nauseating odour of the island is such that it can be felt from more than a kilometre away and the thick layer of guano that covers the rocks makes their surfaces slippery. The island is now characterized by large bare and inert areas. The degradation seems irreversible.

In the mid-seventies, Stanislas Déry and his son Gaston approached the Direction aménagement et exploitation de la faune of the Ministère du Loisir, Chasse et Pêche du Québec to have managers set up a control program for double-crested cormorants on Île aux Pommes. In March 1980, following the report of visits to the island by appointed biologists, the Ministry informed the owner that it recommended prohibiting this control on the grounds that damage to vegetation was a normal occurrence, that the omnipresence of seabirds during the breeding season made this island a resort site of little value except in the fall, where the island could be considered a very good duck hunting site.

The new owner

An avenue of solution was presented to Stanislas Déry by his son, Gaston. The frequency of his visits to the island during the summer seasons of 1979 and 1980, allowed him to examine the situation and propose a development plan that could rebuild an ideal island habitat for the eider duck. On November 25, 1980, Stanislas Déry sold Île aux Pommes to his son Gaston.

A habitat management plan

Gaston Déry's training in forest engineering allows him to assess the situation and scientifically analyze the extent of the degradation. As early as 1980, environmental analyses provided a precise knowledge of the site and the direction of the work to be planned became clearer. The objective of an ideal redevelopment plan would be to allow the island to regenerate and cover itself with vegetation suitable for a natural habitat characterized by a rich biodiversity for avian fauna.

The expected results would be the appearance of high-density shrub and herbaceous vegetation favouring a habitat favourable to eiders and no longer corresponding to the needs of gulls that prefer open areas.

Specific interventions were carried out to achieve our objectives, including controlled burning of the entire surface of the island and soil scarification to promote the decomposition of organic matter accumulated over the years. Nitrogen was incorporated into the soil to accelerate the decomposition process and a mineral supplement to stimulate plant growth. Soft soil and peat were spread to accommodate coppice of shrubs, particularly from Ile aux Fraises, such as gooseberries, rosehips and raspberries were planted around the edges of the rocky ridges and in the herbaceous plain. Finally, a network of trails was developed to facilitate the monitoring and maintenance of development work.

This development work received financial and operational support from Ducks Unlimited and support from the Canadian Wildlife Service of the federal government under the Habitat Management and Acquisition Assistance Program of the St. Lawrence Action Plan. In January 1988, Jean Bédard, President of the Société Sauvagiles, proposed a management plan for double-crested cormorant populations in the St. Lawrence estuary. It recommended adopting a five-year population control plan for this species to reduce damage to vegetation cover on several islands that are critical waterfowl habitats.

In the end, these efforts are paying off. The Ministère du Loisir de la Chasse et de la Pêche, considering the estuary islands as jewels of Quebec's wildlife habitats, decided to take action by applying the cormorant management plan. Interventions began in the spring of 1989 for a period of five years. This management plan restores a balance between the number of individuals and the protection of island habitats in the St. Lawrence Estuary.

Recognized efforts

In 2007, the revitalization and conservation initiatives undertaken on Île aux Pommes were rewarded with the highest environmental distinction awarded in this field, a Phénix de l'environnement awarded by the Government of Quebec in the category Protection, restoration or enhancement of natural environments and biodiversity.

In 2018, Gaston Déry was awarded the Order of Canada for his contribution to the biodiversity of the St. Lawrence Lower Estuary by participating in the revitalization, development and recognition of Île aux Pommes as a nature reserve, thus ensuring its protection in perpetuity. His dedication to environmental protection and sustainable development is an invaluable legacy.

Today

The island has a green face where a strong nature has settled. Its natural habitats, rich wildlife and increasingly diverse flora make it attractive enough to be cited as an environmental jewel. The result of long reflection, concerted efforts and concrete actions, the only objective remains the conservation of the heritage and the safeguarding of ecosystems and species.

Today, Île aux Pommes is the property of Charles-Hubert Déry and Laurence Déry, the children of Gaston and the fourth generation to protect the island since 1927.