Quebec environmentalists shocked to find greenspace housing at risk butterfly species mowed
Global News
Technoparc Oiseaux claims the airport mowed all 19 hectares. When its members asked for an explanation, they say the airport said it's routine maintenance.
Conservation groups that have fought to preserve greenspace northwest of Trudeau Airport in Dorval are devastated. They were shocked when they discovered the field had been mowed during the end of June.
“The first thing that came out of my mouth was this place has been massacred,” said Technoparc Oiseaux Member Jim Harris.
He says everything, including bushes up to fix feet tall and roughly 4 thousand milkweed plants in the greenspace referred to as monarch fields, were mowed.
Now milkweed plants, which he says is essential for monarch butterflies survival, are almost non-existent.
Aéroports de Montréal leases the land from the federal government.
Technoparc Oiseaux claims the airport mowed all 19 hectares. When its members asked for an explanation, they say the airport said it’s routine maintenance. It’s something Harris says hasn’t been done since at least 2012.
“There’s been none of this type of maintenance work done. It was just left to re-wild,” he told Global News.
The Trudeau Airport did not comment by our deadline.