Growing calls for federal government to protect ‘monarch fields’ in Dorval

Technoparc Oiseaux members are calling on the federal government to protect the land. The group started an online petition that's garnered over 27,000 signatures on Monday.

Politicians and environmental advocates are joining the pleas to protect one of Montreal’s last remaining urban greenspaces north of Montreal’s Trudeau Airport.

The Aeroport de Montreal leases the 150-hectare land from Transport Canada. In June, environmentalists claim the airport mowed some 6,000 milkweed plants, which are essential for the monarch butterfly’s survival.

Technoparc Oiseaux co-organizer Katherine Collin says the field has yet to return to its normal state.

However, it’s looking much more lush than it did at the end of June. Common milkweed is growing back and according to the citizen group Technoparc Oiseaux, monarch butterflies are reproducing in the area.

“We’re hopeful in that regard that the monarch fields … can rebound from this real catastrophe of having been razed,” she said.

Technoparc Oiseaux members are calling on the federal government to protect the land. The group started an online petition that’s garnered over 27,000 signatures on Monday.

“The space cannot really be undervalued for not only its biodiversity but for the ecological services that it gives to citizens,” said Collin.

Montreal’s official opposition is presenting a motion to protect the urban greenspace at next Monday’s city council meeting. They will also send it to Canada’s transportation and environment ministers.