Environmental groups say they are appalled by the mowing of the “Champ des Monarques”, a federal land located north of the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport. Thousands of blooming milkweed have been mowed down during the breeding season of monarch butterflies, they denounce. Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) denies having destroyed the site and maintains that it is rather a normal maintenance operation.
“It was probably the most beautiful site in Montreal for the reproduction of monarchs, with more than 4,000 milkweeds in an area of 19 hectares,” laments Benoit Gravel, of the organization Technoparc Oiseaux.
It was a member of the group who, during a walk in the area on June 24, noticed that the vegetation had been cut and that thousands of milkweed shoots, the only plant on which the caterpillars of monarchs, had disappeared, relates Mr. Gravel.
The “Champ des Monarques”, a land that has been left fallow since 2012, also hosts some 150 species of birds, including kildirs, red-winged blackbirds and song sparrows, which were also in the nesting period, indicates Technoparc Oiseaux . “All the small shrubs and thickets have been cut down, and we know that there were a lot of birds nesting there. Some even nest on the ground. But everything was razed. »
Transport Canada owns the land and leases it to ADM. The site had attracted attention in recent years because the company Medicom planned to build a factory there to manufacture surgical masks. The company finally gave up on its project to the great relief of environmental groups.
” Lawn mowing “
ADM denies having destroyed the habitat of the monarchs. In an email, airport authorities said that two weeks ago a “lawn mowing” was carried out “due to the presence of ragweed and long grass, which constitute a nuisance”.
“Our crews certainly did not ‘raze’ the ground, as alleged by some groups, but cut as is standard to do as part of normal airport site maintenance operations,” he said. said Eric Forest, Communications Advisor at ADM.
Aéroports de Montréal maintains that the site had few milkweeds and that the wetlands were not altered. “No sensitive species, sensitive habitat or protected area is present in this sector”, assures the organization.
This is not what the mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa, noticed when a walk led him on June 25 to the site located on the territory of Dorval. “I went in May and it was full of milkweed,” he confirms. “But when I went there recently, I was shocked to see that everything, everything, everything was completely razed from one end to the other. It was beyond normal maintenance. […] The people who did the work did it systematically. »
Protection of endangered species
According to environmental groups, the “Monarch Field” and its wetlands have great ecological value. But he has no protection.
“The problem is that[ADM] are in their own right,” laments the mayor of Dorval, Marc Doret, who said he was disappointed with the cut made. He reminds that federal land is zoned for industrial development. The elected official would like to discuss with Transport Canada to protect at least part of the site.
Last fall, during the election campaign, Projet Montréal indicated its intention to expand the nearby Sources nature park, as well as to demand federal protection for the “Champ des monarches”.
“We are appalled. It is a terrible rampage. It is an attack on the biodiversity of the island of Montreal,” said the NDP MP for Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Alexandre Boulerice, who wrote last year to the federal ministers of Transport and the Environment, Omar Alghabra and Steven Guilbeault, asking them to take action on the file. “But the government washes its hands a bit by saying that it has a lease with ADM and that they are the ones who manage the land. »
The elected member of the NDP recalls that it is the federal government which is responsible for enforcing laws on the protection of endangered species. “But it may not be too late to act, whether with the lease with ADM or the creation of a federal park. »
By email, Minister Alghabra’s office limited itself to saying that Aéroports de Montréal should make more efforts in terms of environmental protection. In 2021, ADM planted approximately 180 shoots and 300 milkweed seeds in two sectors of Parc des Sources. “Our government supports this environmental initiative, but we reiterate to ADM that it must do more. »