Meadowbrook, Technoparc need protection

Plante and Her team deserve credit on Green spaces, but more should be done, say Louise Legault and Joël Coutu.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and the Projet Montréal administration should be praised for their ongoing efforts to protect wilderness, wetlands, green space and former farm land on the island.

This includes recent land acquisitions to increase the size of the proposed national urban park that will include Angell Woods, all 365 hectares of the L’Anse-à-l’Orme wilderness/wetlands, threatened forests and fields in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue and the Morgan Arboretum; the plan to save the Anjou golf course from development and link it to an existing municipal park; and the proposed new Falaise St. Jacques regional nature park, linking the escarpment forest and a green corridor to a new park on the south side of the Turcot Interchange.

The city stressed this commitment in its July 12 appeal of a June 7 Quebec Superior Court ruling concerning the St. Pierre River in Meadowbrook golf course. The court gave the city 18 months to stop the pollution from entering a 200-metre-long open section of the river and 24 months to decontaminate the land. The pollution stems from 218 homes and buildings in Côte- St-Luc and Montreal West that are sending raw sewage into the storm sewer.

Part of Montreal’s appeal, a request for more time to complete the repairs, was rejected by the Quebec Court of Appeal on July 25. This increases the threat to the last remaining open portion of the river.

Les Amis du Parc Meadowbrook, which wants Meadowbrook to be converted into a regional nature park, and Technoparc Oiseaux, which is calling for all the remaining wetlands, forests and fields on the site of the Technoparc Montreal in St-Laurent to become a bird and wildlife sanctuary, appreciate the city’s appeal, which emphasized the protection of water, rivers, wetlands and wilderness rehabilitation.

“Channelling the Meadowbrook creek into an underground storm sewer would result in lost opportunities to rehabilitate this sector, create new, green infrastructures downstream and allow an outlet for excess water that would relieve pressure on underground infrastructures,” the city noted in its appeal, as recently reported in the Montreal Gazette.

Protecting the St. Pierre is a key element for a Meadowbrook park — a wildlife refuge that could be used year-round by local residents.

Meanwhile, the Technoparc wetlands are threatened by the Techoparc’s plan to build the Hubert Reeves Eco-Campus on the site — several buildings and large parking lots. The St-Laurent borough has already extended Alfred-Nobel Blvd. roughly 500 metres into the wildlife habitat, added a dike, and a new drainage infrastructure is removing huge quantities of water annually that is damaging the wetlands and destroying food resources, such as fish. More than 3,000 trees have already been cut down, and more will be lost should the development occur.

The wetlands are used by nearly 185 kinds of birds, many of which migrate to Montreal from points south. That the wetlands survived development is a miracle, and their destruction would be a disaster for the wildlife and cause the loss of the premier birdwatching site on the island.

The area is a confirmed breeding site for four officially endangered birds — the Least Bittern, Wood Thrush, Eastern Wood Peewee and Barn Swallow. It is also a habitat and migration stop used by five endangered birds, including the Bobolink, Short-eared Owl and Chimney Swift.

The site also is home to beavers, bats, Monarch butterflies and several species of fish. Should the damage done already be repaired and road and other infrastructure be removed, Montrealers will have a mini-Everglades from spring to mid-fall.

The federal government can intervene to protect this fragile wildlife habitat based on the threatened species calling it home.

We’re at a crossroads in terms of wilderness protection.

Plante and Luc Ferrandez, executive committee member responsible for parks, green spaces and large projects, have demonstrated a desire to protect wilderness and green space. They should add Meadowbrook and the Technoparc wetlands to their list.