There was some fantastic environmental news last week that deserves to be noticed.

Tamaracouta, the former Scouts Canada camp in the Lower Laurentians, will have most of its sprawling land preserved as part of an ecological network that continues to expand, thanks to an agreement reached with the landowner.

Protecting biodiversity is a top priority for the planet. The challenge for Quebec is that the richest biodiversity is found in the southern part of the province, which is also the most developed. Despite a shared provincial and federal goal of protecting 30 per cent of our land and water, only about 10 per cent has been protected in southern Quebec.

There is still a lot to do — but this one massive preservation effort will form part of a long-term plan to have an ecological corridor that will stretch all the way up to Mont-Tremblant Park.

The understanding of the importance of “eco-corridors” has been growing in recent years.

It’s one thing to save a large tract of land from development, but........

© Montreal Gazette