Protecting the Restigouche
The Restigouche – Why it’s Important
The Restigouche River Watershed is one of Eastern Canada’s great wild landscapes. Stretching across more than one million hectares in northwestern New Brunswick and Quebec’s Gaspé region, this Canadian Heritage River is known for clear cold waters, deep forests, abundant wildlife, and some of the most celebrated wild Atlantic salmon rivers in North America.
For generations, the Restigouche has supported communities, cultures, livelihoods, and outdoor traditions. People go there to paddle, fish, hunt, hike, guide, explore, and reconnect with nature. Its forests help keep rivers cool and clean, its headwaters support salmon spawning, and its connected habitats provide refuge for moose, black bear, Canada lynx, American marten, flying squirrels, goshawks and warblers.
This extraordinary watershed remains vulnerable. Logging, mining, road building, and poorly planned development fragment forests, warm up streams, damage habitat, and put the rivers people love at risk. Protecting the Restigouche is about more than conserving nature. It is about safeguarding clean water, local economies, cultural connections, and a living legacy for generations to come.
Our Vision
Our vision is a healthy, connected Restigouche River Watershed where forests, rivers, wildlife, and communities thrive together. We envision a future where the watershed’s most important natural areas are conserved, Indigenous stewardship and cultural values are respected, and sustainable forest and river-based economies support people across the region.
Protecting the Restigouche means protecting the foundation of a vibrant region:
- cold-water rivers that sustain Atlantic salmon and other fish
- intact forests that shelter wildlife
- scenic waterways that draw visitors
- and landscapes that support guiding, outfitting, tourism, recreation, and responsible local businesses.
With thoughtful conservation and sustainable management, the Restigouche can remain a resilient place where communities are strong, and people can experience one of the most remarkable wild watersheds in Eastern Canada.
What Needs to Happen
CPAWS NB has worked with community groups, partners, and supporters in the Restigouche region for more than 25 years. Together, we are calling for stronger, lasting protection for the forests, rivers, and habitats that make this watershed so important.
To keep the Restigouche healthy and resilient, governments and decision-makers need to advance these conservation actions:
- Create protected wilderness areas that support ecotourism, outdoor recreation, and nature-based tourism, including roadless areas, steep slopes, scenic rivers, and other wild places.
- Manage forests in ways that sustain local livelihoods and non-timber forest products such as mushrooms, ginseng, ground hemlock, and maple syrup.
- Conserve connected wildlife habitats so native species can move, feed, breed, and thrive.
- Protect river systems, headwaters, cold-water refuges, and salmon spawning grounds with best practices for ecologically-sensitive forest harvesting, road building, and development near waterways.
In July 2022, the Government of New Brunswick designated 84 new protected areas, including sites along the Restigouche, Patapedia, Kedgwick, and Upsalquitch rivers. This added more than 15,000 hectares of protection within the watershed and marked an important step forward for nature and wildlife.
We are encouraged by this action, but the work is not finished. Much of the Restigouche still needs stronger protection to keep its forests intact, its rivers cold and clean, and its habitats connected.
By working together, we can protect the Restigouche for nature, for people, and for the future. Public support matters. Every voice helps show decision-makers that New Brunswickers and supporters beyond the region want a healthy watershed, sustainable communities, and a lasting nature legacy.
What You Can Do
Speak up for nature and help protect the Restigouche. Decision-makers need to hear that people care about this extraordinary wild watershed.
Talk to or write to your MLA and let them know you support stronger conservation action for the Restigouche River Watershed. A personal message can make a powerful difference. Share why this place matters to you and why lasting protection is important for New Brunswick’s nature, people, and future.
Click Subscribe Now to sign up for our e-news and be among the first to know when we need you to take action for the Restigouche. Together, our voices can help keep this watershed wild, healthy, and thriving now, and for generations to come.