Montreal’s Mount Royal is home to hundreds of species of plants even some that are considered endangered. In an effort to protect them, a non profit group, Les Amis de la Montagne, in partnership with the City of Montreal have set up fences in 2021 as part of a program to close informal trails.
Despite the fences, some Montrealer’s have disregarded them to continue on the former path, impacting the endangered plant life.
Head of conservation for Les Amis de la Montagne, Antonin St-Jean, said the idea for the fence project was to preserve large patches of forest and plants by closing off various trails around the park without affecting the floristic richness.
“I think it’s important to learn about the richness of the site, learn about the plant diversity that’s here,” St-Jean said. “Then people I think will be more aware of the need for protection and the sort of duty they have to protect the site.”
St-Jean says damage to plant life is mainly caused by invasive species like common buckthorn and by foot traffic and tourism, though assures most travelers are courteous to the rules.
Running, biking and hiking are just some of the activities people can be seen doing on the mountain. Les Amis de la Montagne reports that Mount Royal Park alone is visited by over five million people each year.
On the trail, a section of the fence was vandalized with St-Jean theorizing it was done with a set of pliers.
“[They] most probably really wanted to use this usual trail,” he said. “That’s the thing that happens in the park but most of the project is holding up well.”
While walking on the trail, St-Jean said some of the protected plant species can take twenty years to flower and live up to 100-years-old. He pointed out how close to the trail some of the plants can be with some plants being steps away.
“There’s more than 700 plant species in Montreal and 10 of them are species considered at risk,” he said. “We have species like the Canada Bloodroot, White Trillium and Large Flowered Bellwort.”
St-Jean says these are species that have a protection status at the provincial level with some plant species vulnerable to being picked.
Outside of the trail, Montrealers and tourists voiced their appreciation on the efforts made with preserving the protected plants and areas.
“I think to have other areas which are either fenced off or just try to be conserved I think everyone should be respectful of that,” Teresa Fawcett Wood said.
“You can’t just trample all over greenery and plants wherever you want.”