Souvenirs Forêt Anselme Lavigne Forest Memories
Espaces bleus verts, Histoire-History Pierrefonds mai 4th, 2010
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Nos Souvenirs – Our Souvenirs
2010-05-04 David Fletcher Roxboro
I have some photos of wildflowers in bloom in this forest that are now officially listed as at risk in Quebec. One of the attached photos demonstrates that a very typical example of the increasingly rare black maple is found here, at the opposite end from the clearcut (The photo with my fingers holding a dead leaf against the bark). It is a tree I know well from many years ago like an old friend. The trees here are typical of the species found in a climax forest of this region: bitternut hickory, beech, ironwood, sugar and black maple among them. They are very special.
This was a small part of a complex of forest and wetland found in this part of the West Island that was still pretty much intact when I started teaching at Beechwood School, down the road, in 1965. I spent many hours with my students in these places and often visited the forest along the path that is still there now after more than 40 years. There was a broad wetland to the north where Pierrefonds Comprehensive HS is now that we would visit with nets and buckets. There was only a forest path where the road is now.
Witnessing the loss of this last remnant is very poignent for me. It is very hard to watch. I feel my pulse and breathing quicken. I have many fond memories of being in that place with the children. I know it was very special to them, as well, and that they share my anguish over it now. That was a real classroom! If this last little piece goes that will be it. It is always difficult to go past there.
David Fletcher, Roxboro
mai 5th, 2010 at 12:18
What a really super place to go to introduce children to the wonders of the forest. We are the stewards of nature for the next generation. They are depending on us.
mai 5th, 2010 at 12:26
A tree does not appear on the Borough’s ledger. Urbanization is king in Roxboro and Pierrefonds and at the Centre City on Notre Dame St.
It is a sad fact that many view forests as mere warehouses of trees to be harvested. They do not see the woods as already developed. They do not view them through the prism of our fellow creatures on Earth. Why? Perhaps because animals and plants not have a say in their futures. They are powerless when confronted by the bulldozer and chain saw. There is no funeral for the felled Iron Wood or Black Maple…
Avrom Shtern, Cote Saint Luc
mai 12th, 2010 at 12:18
La meilleur manière pour éviter la disparition de ce rare petit boisé dans l’ouest de l’ile c’est si le public participe en grand nombre aux assemblées du conseil et plaide pour sa survie. Depuis que je demeure dans le secteur (50 années), j’ai été témoin de plusieurs batailles aux assemblées dans Roxboro, Dollard-des-Ormeaux et maintetant dans notre arrondissement de Pierrefonds/Roxboro, et lorsque nos élus s’apercoivent que le public à une cause à cœur, comme celle ci, cela les fait agir.
Guy Billard
Roxboro