On one side the opponents and environmentalists who denounce a project which harms biodiversity, on the other the mayor who defends an educational park and a tourist asset.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 2 min
:quality(50)/2024/04/13/parc-dino-661a2523db367133236622.jpg)
In Trévoux, north of Lyon, in Ain, the future dinosaur park divides the town. A new rally takes place on Saturday April 13 against the project which must open before the summer. Opponents denounce a private project, which harms the environment. Among them is Thomas Brail, the “defender of trees” who opposed the A69 motorway project between Toulouse and Castres, in the South-West. For his part, the mayor of the town defends the educational nature of the future park and its appeal for family customers.
At 12 meters high, the plastic dinosaurs are realistic and can be seen from afar. They already occupy the five-hectare park, under construction on the site of the old summer swimming pool, closed because it was too expensive. Opponents anticipate future nuisances: noise (the “cries” of monsters) and the influx of 100,000 visitors per year into a natural area. “We denounce real environmental destruction on the site where there is a wooded area to be preserved, a wetland with protected species and very rich biodiversityexplains Émilie Camus, from the Non aux Dinos collective. And we all know the collapse of biodiversity and the impacts it will have on us, our children and our future.”
A non-violent battle to prevent the park from opening
The opponents’ other grievance concerns 19 trees to be cut down, which they consider to be a disregard for the environmental code. The LR mayor of Trévoux, Marc Péchoux, refutes outright: “We are far from destroying nature, quite the contrary. The wetland is not on the woods that everyone is aiming for, but it is on the other side of the road. It is the municipality which has been developed. There is indeed a wetland on another plot of the park, but this one will not be affected. It is not even developed. Trees will be cut down, he admits, but only trees that have already fallen or died will be felled.”
At the end of March, more than 300 people opposed to the park marched in town. Opponents plan to fight without violence to prevent the park from opening in June. It is the fourth of its kind in the Dinopédia group, after those located in Gard, Lozère and the Pyrénées-Orientales.