Île-Perrot residents need municipal authorities to cease clearcutting of white oak forest

Kids and adults embellished tree branches with their home-made letters and indicators in a bit of forest they need to see protected on Sunday. It was a show of affection, for what’s left of the greenspace in Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, off the western tip of Montreal.

“This wooded space is so particular it’s a disgrace it’s coming down,” mentioned Sébastien Boisvert, spokesperson for the SOS Boisé des chênes blancs Fb Group.

Crews arrived final week to start slicing down bushes to create space for a housing improvement. l’Île-Perrot residents and environmental organizations at Sunday’s protest say there was no public session surrounding the venture. Now they’re calling for a moratorium.

Biologists say additional evaluation is required earlier than persevering with to judge the sociological and environmental penalties of clearing the 7.8-hectare forest.

“What we ask, amongst different issues, is to get time to make correct inventories of wildlife, vegetation and all of the biodiversity that lives there,” mentioned biologist Annie Claude Bélisle.

In accordance with Bélisle, the world is residence to a federally protected species of frog, the western refrain, in addition to birds and foxes. The mature forest additionally has necessary ecological and historic worth.

She mentioned it’s residence to the biggest inhabitants of white oak, a uncommon species of bushes in Quebec.

Protesters shocked by how briskly the venture was authorized, are calling for rules to guard woodlands. Quebec Inexperienced Social gathering Chief Alex Tyrrell agrees that it’s necessary to guard what’s left, completely.

“All throughout the island of Montreal and its environment, inexperienced areas and, notably, wetlands are being destroyed at a extremely alarming charge,” mentioned Tyrrell.

In an electronic mail to International Information, Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot Mayor Danie Deschênes writes all the pieces is already mentioned and refuses to remark additional.

Whereas some advocates understand it might be too late to avoid wasting the white oak forest, they hope to guard different woodlands within the space from improvement for generations to return.