Montreal expands ecoterritory

In what the Montreal executive committee is calling an unprecedented partnership, it has teamed up with conservation group Ducks Unlimited Canada to save about 180 hectares of wetlands in West Pierrefonds, west of Rivière à l'Orme, from development.

"This is the largest (conservation zone) enlargement project ever undertaken on the Island of Montreal," explained Hélène Fotopoulos, executive committee member responsible for green and blue spaces. The announcement occurred at a public meeting of the committee at the Salle Pauline-Julien of Collège Gérald Godin in Île Bizard/Ste. Geneviève.

Currently, there are about 88 hectares in the area that are protected. With the addition of another 180, the protected area would be as large as Jean Drapeau Park, and larger than Mount Royal Park, according to Fotopoulos.

City of Montreal employee Pierre Bouchard, a director in charge of parks and nature, explained during a speech at the meeting that the territory to be preserved was determined by city officials, the Pierrefonds/Roxboro borough, as well the provincial Environment Ministry.

He praised Ducks Unlimited Canada, "an organization that has the goal of reaching conservation agreements (between land owners)," he said.

Outside the meeting, Bouchard's colleague Daniel Hodder told The ChronicleDucks Unlimited will use a $675,000 cheque by Montreal to start a negotiation process with the roughly 10 developers that own the swath of land in question.

"The developers own more land (than what is to be conserved)," Hodder said.

Each developer will pay a different amount to Ducks Unlimited based on the size of the land they own that they are picking up, he explained.

Altogether, this amount, combined with what Ducks Unlimited is receiving from Montreal, and funds it gains from the organization's private donors, should cover the land's conservation costs, Hodder explained.

The sector to be preserved in Pierrefonds-Ouest is but one conservation zone among the three that together form an entire ecoterritory, according to Hodder. In 2004, Montreal designated 10 different areas on the island as ecoterritories.

Critics have charged Ducks Unlimited Canada is not an organization simply concerned with conservation, but rather that it advocates duck-hunting as well, and counts hunters among its many supporters.

The organization's Quebec director, Bernard Filion told The Chronicle Ducks Unlimited was indeed founded 70 years ago by a group of American duck hunters who were concerned with keeping their prey's natural environment in pristine shape to allow them to keep pursuing their hobby.

"When (the hunters) discovered that 78 per cent of duck habitats were in Canada, they transferred (the organization) to Canada," he explained.

"It is a conservation organization," he added. According to him, properties that are set up by Ducks Unlimited as conservation areas are legislated by the owner of the property, not Ducks Unlimited. "The owner of the property manages access (to it)," he said.

Hodder reminded hunting is prohibited on the island of Montreal.

Spokespeople of the Green Coalition, a local environmental group that has frequently been at odds with Montreal in the past, were guardedly optimistic about the announcement.

"This is a good move," David Fletcher said, and he praised Montreal's choice of partner as well. "We feel that (Ducks Unlimited) is a valuable partner in the conservation network," he added.

His colleague, Sylvia Oljemark, reminded, however, the ecoterritory that the Pierrefonds-west sector is a part of also stretches all the way to Angell Woods in Beaconsfield and includes a section of L'Anse à L'Orme park in Ste. Anne de Bellevue as well.

Oljemark said the other two parts of the ecoterritory still have yet to receive conservation or protection status.

Bouchard told The Chronicle there is a long-term plan, which could take years, to create an "eco-corridor" that links all three parts of the eco-territory. "The negotiations (with Beaconsfield and Ste. Anne de Bellevue) are going well," he said.

In April 2008, a letter sent by Hélène Fotopulos' office to the Green Coalition indicated Montreal is trying to save the Ste. Anne part of L'Anse à L'Orme park from development, but Ste. Anne de Bellevue had "expressed concerns about enlarging the L'Anse à L'Orme park."

Since then, Bouchard said, negotiations are going better. As for Angell Woods, Montreal hopes to make an announcement before the end of the year, he said.

The executive committee meeting was the ninth one to be held publicly since 2002, and the first that occurred in the West Island.