The City of Lachute planted some 750 trees on vacant land in the Petit-Canada sector as part of a micro-forest project. This is the first plantation of its kind in Lachute and the municipality plans to do others in different neighborhoods.
What is a micro-forest? It was a Japanese botanist, Akira Miyawaki, who developed this concept where tree shoots are planted very close together. Thus, these shoots will “fight” among themselves for the resources present and only the strongest will survive. The forest can thus grow more quickly.
“We are going to accelerate the succession of trees by ‘boosting’ the competition between them,” explained Mathilde Gaulin, sustainable development coordinator at the City of Lachute. It will grow very quickly and very tall. Within 2-3 years, it could reach a height of five meters. The mortality rate will help soil biodiversity. The chances of everything going well are very high! »
For this first Lachut micro-forest, 750 shoots of different species of trees (yellow birches, red oaks, red maples, some conifers) and shrubs (notably spirea) were planted over an area of 250 meters squares of land located at the corner of Filion and Bellingham streets, in the Petit-Canada sector. All these species are found among those present in the surrounding woodlands.
The land on which the micro-forest was planted, owned by the City of Lachute, was formerly occupied by a residence that was demolished after the floods of 2017 and 2019. “It’s a way to increase biodiversity in an urban environment,” explained Mayor Bernard Bigras-Denis. “It also creates a buffer zone because this is a flood-prone area. It will also help counter heat islands.”
In the same area, about ten other plots of land became the property of the municipality after the demolition of the residences that occupied them following the historic floods. The City plans to plant some 75 trees on two of them while a trail has been built on two other of these lots.
“We are simply going to return these lands to nature,” says the mayor. We are going to protect them, the goal being to no longer have any development on these lands to restore freedom to the Rivière du Nord. »
Push faster
Jorge Rojas, project manager at Arbre-Évolution, a partner of the City of Lachute in this micro-forest project, explains that citizens will very quickly see new forest cover on the land where the micro-forest has been planted.
“Compared to trees that are planted naturally and in isolation, these will take much longer to reach a mature height,” he said. By planting trees much closer together, they will enter into competition mode for resources including light. They will therefore grow much higher. In the case of vacant land, this is a technique that is entirely appropriate. »
The bill for this project amounts to $20,000, 50% of which is the responsibility of the City of Lachute, the rest coming from various partners. The City plans to build a second micro-forest in the airport area where 300 other trees will be planted at a later date.
