Volunteers unite to protect forests from invasive buckthorn and litter

Article content

When biologist Claire Vasseur passed through the woods at the northwest corner of Mackenzie King Park on her way to work at the Biodôme, she saw a woefully neglected and misused space.

Article content

It contained garbage and discarded furniture, large areas so trampled that the ground was bare, and large swaths of common buckthorn, an invasive species that crowds out native plants and shrubs necessary for a healthy ecosystem.

In short, the century-old forest bounded by Westbury Ave. and Côte-Ste-Catherine Rd. And one of the few wooded areas in the Côte-des-Neiges district, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, was a disaster.

Vasseur thought that the only way to ensure the survival of the forest, renamed Le Boisé Dora Wasserman by the municipality in 2017 in honor of the founder of the Yiddish Theater Dora Wasserman, was to help the people who use it to understand how their actions can make a difference. the difference. . She proposed that the municipality involve local youth and residents in the felling and removal of buckthorn and planting native species in their place, and the project was approved.

Article content

The municipality has helped by providing the plants for the project (450 native plants and shrubs in 2019, another 750 in 2021) along with cedar mulch to define a main trail and sending irrigation trucks. Les Amis de la Montagne, who has been working for a decade to eradicate sea buckthorn at Mount Royal, supported the idea and volunteers got involved to help Vasseur.

The 1998 ice storm had a devastating effect on the forest canopy, said Victoria Desmarais, Les Amis de la Montagne community environmental stewardship leader. “When there is a disturbance in the forest, it leaves the door open for the buckthorn.”

About a decade ago, security-conscious police wanted the bushes and shrubs on the perimeter to be cut down to improve their lines of sight to the interior from their patrol cars. It worked, but it also sped up the growth of sea buckthorn.

Article content

Introduced to North America from Europe in the late 1800s as a decorative plant, common buckthorn thrives almost anywhere, it can grow to the height of a tree and have multiple trunks. Its glossy leaves remain green long after other plants have changed color and its dark fruit is eaten by birds that deposit their seeds everywhere.

Buckthorn is so invasive that it can kill a forest, said Bruce Dawe, a volunteer with the Les Amis de la Montagne environmental management program and a volunteer with Les AmiEs du boisé Dora Wasserman. “It doesn’t allow our native species to grow. We want it out, and we want to replace it with native species like spirea and fruit trees like chokecherry and serviceberry ”.

One of the objectives of the Vasseur project is to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity and the actions that threaten it. This includes leaving the main trails on foot or by bicycle, which destroys vegetation, compacts the soil and increases erosion. People who feed birds and squirrels contribute to increasing populations to unsustainable levels; The negative effects of littering include glass and plastic that interfere with soil formation.

Article content

“We have to encourage people to use the roads correctly,” he said. People who had created their own paths “were trampling on a lot of beautiful plants without knowing it, so there are surfaces without plants.”

TO competence Among the schools of the municipality, the students of the Collège International Marie de France won the design of posters that encouraged users to follow the trails, refrain from feeding the squirrels and not litter. The signs were posted at the entrances to the forest in September.

Approximately 20,000 buckthorn bushes have been cut or removed since 2018 with the help of volunteers, including students from Ècole Sécondaire La Voie and Herzliah High School, youth from the Côte-des-Neiges Black Community Association, local residents, volunteers by Les Amis de la Montagne, Les AmiEs du boisé Dora Wasserman and Les Amis du Biodôme.

Article content

And volunteers have planted dozens of varieties of plants, shrubs, shrubs and trees to recreate what was there before buckthorn took over, including oaks, linden, cherry and maples, as well as honeysuckle bushes, meadowsweet. whites, blackberries and wild raspberries. columbine, common chokecherry and Canadian service berry.

The sowing, which was carried out on the perimeter and inside the forest, ends the season with a final session this Sunday. At noon, Vasseur will give a talk open to all on conservation issues specific to the urban forest.

Dawe said he enjoys the “volunteer spirit” of his work, both physically and in its clear focus: conserving a wood. He also likes to educate people. “If something I say encourages someone to do something that I think can make the world a better place, it’s rewarding for me.”

Article content

Line Bonneau, a Les Amis de la Montagne volunteer who established Les AmiEs du Boisé Dora Wasserman in 2020 said the district should plant more trees in Mackenzie King Park so that people sit there rather than in the forest. The park has 145 trees, the forest about 800.

“It is important that the forest is identified as a forest: it is not a park. A wood that belongs to the city is precious, ”he said.

“The Dora Wasserman Forest is the only oasis of greenery in the neighborhood. It cannot survive if we do not revitalize it ”.

“In these forests, there are no grandchildren: they are all grandparents,” Bonneau said, referring to the lack of young tree growth in the forest.

The hope, he said, is “that this project shows people, ‘Wow, there’s something to protect.’

[email protected]