Blue planet, green ideas | Reforest with autumn leaves

(Saint-Roch-de-l’Achigan) By raking their land this fall, residents of the Laurentians will, without even realizing it, contribute to reforesting abandoned sand quarries in Quebec.

Their dead leaves collected during municipal collections will be used to stimulate willow plantations. These trees will create new carbon sinks, new ecosystems.

This year, 100% of the leaves collected in the municipality of Prévost, north of Mirabel, are intended to fertilize sand pits currently undergoing reforestation. This is the equivalent of 120 tonnes of leaves, explains Prévost’s communications advisor, Audrey-Anne Lamarre. Once they have fallen from the trees, these leaves are still rich in nutrients.

Dead leaves from fall collections in other cities in Quebec will also be sent to future willow forests. We are talking about the leaves of Saint-Jérôme, located at the gateway to the Laurentians.

However, the situation is more complicated for leaves collected in spring, what we call “green residue”, because of the pollutants and waste linked to melting snow. They will end up in composting sites.

After noise walls

The company behind these willow groves created from scratch is called Ramo. It is already recognized for its wooden noise walls with rock wool acoustics. These screens are sold as far as California. We will soon see them appear in Boucherville, on the South Shore of Montreal.

Ramo’s head office is located in Saint-Roch-de-l’Achigan, about forty kilometers north of Montreal. Founded in the early 2000s, the company also produces chips.

Francis Allard is co-founder and president of Ramo, which began on his father’s old farm. The lands of the Lanaudière sector are known for their carrot crops. But today, instead of root vegetables, impressive rows of willow shoots several meters tall stand there as far as the eye can see.

To make your way through this forest, reminiscent of fields of tall grass on the side of the roads, you must first cross a small culvert, then a very tight corded wall of stems covered with leaves.

Rapid growth

The fast-growing willows, which already reach several meters in height, were planted this summer, explains Mr. Allard. This is why we talk about rapid growth. Harvests to transform them into walls or even chips take place frequently, every year.

“It is difficult to grow something on disused sand pits. It’s almost beach sand, emphasizes Francis Allard. But with good potting soil, willows have an incredible capacity to grow. They sequester carbon as soon as they are planted, unlike softwoods which can take 15 to 20 years. We therefore manage to recreate an ecosystem in its own right. »

The leader of Ramo invited The Press to go about ten kilometers further, chemin du Curé-Barrette, in Terrebonne. At this location, part of the enormous Villeneuve sand quarry has reached the end of its life.

Under Quebec government rules, owners must deploy a redevelopment or restoration plan. Here, workers have already cleared the land of its rocks. Spreading of black earth also took place.

Young willow shoots have just hatched.

Soon, the ground will be covered with tree leaves raked by individuals, explains Mr. Allard.

“For every hectare of fast-growing willow forest, 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide CO₂ are captured each year. There are hundreds of abandoned sand pits in Quebec, so we are talking about a thousand hectares to be transformed into carbon sinks. »

The Ramo company also has plantation projects in the west of the country, on mines in Alberta. Other crops are planned in New York State and northern Quebec. In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the company specializing in the use of willows to solve environmental problems (phytotechnology) has planted millions of trees, including 20,000 on the site of the Sayona lithium mine, which is used to power batteries mobile devices and electric vehicles.

The benefits

Willows are recognized for their benefits, among other things for reforesting banks and riparian areas devastated by floods. Thanks to their high absorption capacity, willow forests make it possible to treat part of the wastewater by acting a bit like absorbent paper, a biological evaporator. Phytotechnology is also promising on landfill sites, former dumpsites.

In the City of Montreal, blue-collar workers ensure the management of dead leaves on public property, sidewalks, manholes and roads. For the moment, they are used to produce compost, particularly for parks.

The annual collection varies between 15,000 and 18,000 tonnes each year, including the collection of bags of leaves, specifies Camille Bégin, responsible for media relations at the City of Montreal.

Visit the Ramo company website

Visit the Saules Québec website