Biodiversity | The “monarch field” will be protected

(Montreal) Ottawa is committed to protecting the “champ des monarches”, a vast green space whose mowing by Aéroports de Montréal in June raised controversy.

“It’s my intention to do so,” said Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault on Friday morning, recalling that the federal government launched a consultation in November to register the iconic butterfly and two more pollinators on the endangered species list, which will force Ottawa to protect its habitat.

Le champ des monarches is a 20-hectare green space located north of the landing strips at Montréal-Trudeau airport; the land belongs to the federal government, which leases it to Aéroports de Montréal.

In particular, there is an abundance of milkweed, a plant that is the one and only food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars, but also other flowering plants popular with pollinators and a multitude of animal species, including birds. .

In the middle of the nesting period, in June, Aéroports de Montréal had the field mowed, attracting an outcry of criticism and triggering an investigation by the federal Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.

The monarch is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species and one subspecies, the migratory monarch, is listed as endangered.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), which categorized the monarch as special concern in 1997, recommended in 2016 that it be upgraded to endangered.

Montreal elected officials from all levels of government also reiterated Friday morning, just before Minister Guilbeault left, their call to protect the field from monarchs.

“More than 26 municipal resolutions and two wetland freezes have been adopted to ensure the protection in perpetuity of these federal lands in order to increase their ecological value,” recalled Alan DeSousa, Mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, where is the field of monarchs.

“I have never seen such unanimity on a proposal and I ask the federal government to recognize these lands as a federal park,” he added.

“We expect a concrete gesture from Ottawa, and this, in front of the international community”, added the solidarity deputy for Verdun, Alejandra Zaga Mendez, affirming that urban wetlands are “oases for biodiversity. “.

“Preserving the integrity of the wetlands surrounding the Montreal Airport is no longer an option, but our duty in order to protect the rich biodiversity found there,” declared Marwah Rizqy, Liberal MNA for Saint-Laurent.