While Montreal has Monarch Butterfly Friendly City status, ADM would have committed a wanton act of environmental destruction
according to this environmental group.
The Green Coalition says mowing operations on the 19-hectare Monarch Field have destroyed the breeding habitat and food of monarch butterflies, as well as their larvae
.
The groves and shrubs in Monarch Field are all gone. Only the trees were spared from the mowing by Aéroports de Montréal. The milkweed plants that were there were mowed down in bloom, just weeks before the arrival of the iconic butterfly. Usually what happens is really around the end of August, beginning of September, where there, during the migration, all the monarchs arrive
explains Benoît Gravel, who campaigns for Techoparc Oiseaux, the organization behind the discovery.
« So what’s going to happen this year is that there won’t be any milkweed, so they won’t be able, in that area at least, to reproduce, feed and rest. »
This is an area located north of the Dorval golf course, which had been left fallow for 10 years.
This area is part of a much larger whole, a green lung of around 200 hectares whose ecological value is increasingly recognized. New Democrat MP Alexandre Boulerice is among those who would like to see the site transformed into a federal park. It should either terminate the lease to make it a park, or give indications, instructions to Aéroports de Montréal to be able to protect it
according to him.
ADM defends itself
Aéroports de Montréal denies having acted wrongly. If the institution confirms that it has proceeded with a cut as it is appropriate to do in the context of normal maintenance operations of the airport site
a cut aimed at combating ragweed, she specifies that there is no monarch field
at this exact location.
1/4 – Mowing the “Champ des monarches”: @yulaeroport responds to criticism from @Tpark_Birds and the Green Coalition by minimizing the impacts of the operation.
— Jerome Labbe (@jeromelabbe81) July 4, 2022
<q data-attributes="{"lang":{"value":"fr","label":"Français"},"value":{"html":"Aucun signalement de monarque n’a été fait à cet endroit sur le site de Mission monarque en2022″,”text”:”No monarch reports were made at this location on the Mission Monarque website in 2022″}}”>No monarch reports were made at this location on the Mission Monarque website in 2022indicates in a press release Éric Forest, spokesperson forADM.
Aéroports de Montréal, on the contrary, claims to be the only airport authority in Canada to have created an ecological park
.
This is the Sources Ecological Park, an area of 2 million square feet north of the airport site that would beADM is committed to protecting and enhancing for the benefit of the community”,”text”:”an environment of high ecological value that ADM is committed to protecting and enhancing for the benefit of the community”} }”>an environment of high ecological value thatADM is committed to protecting and enhancing for the benefit of the communityaccording to the organization.
These arguments do not satisfy Technoparc Oiseaux. The organization points out that 126 Monarchs have been counted on the site since 2019 and that if none were counted in 2022 it is because the Monarchs migrating to Mexico had not yet arrived in Montreal. The place in Montreal with the highest documented number of milkweeds is the Champ des Monarques, maintains the organization
which points out that other species of interest are on the site.
The 150 ha of green spaces leased by Transport Canada to ADM, the Champ des Monarques, Golf Dorval, and important wetlands and land areas, as well as the Sources Ecological Park are likely to be developed by the industry as long as the federal status is not changed concludes Technoparc Oiseaux.
At the start of the year, a company manufacturing medical masks recently abandoned its plan to build a factory in the Champ des Monarques.
With information from Jérôme Labbé
