Biodiversity in a 30-hectare forest, just south of Saint-Jacques Street in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood, has long been a preoccupation for residents who’ve fought to protect the green space.
They say it’s been a struggle.
So imagine their surprise and glee three weeks ago when a group discovered something growing.
“A new species in the falaise,” laughed Lisa Mintz. “This is really, really cool.”
It’s fragrant sumac, a deciduous shrub endangered in Quebec. City of Montreal horticulturalist Jean-Pierre Duford was among the group on a hike who found the plant.
“My first reaction was, ‘how did this get here?’ because it doesn’t grow in the Montreal area,” he told Global News. “We don’t know how it could have arrived here.”
Duford says it’s a significant discovery because the bush is so hard to find.
It’s been seen in just 11 places in Quebec,” he explained. “Along the Ottawa River where it is known to grow in Quebec, and they are all west of Gatineau.”
People at UrbaNature who’ve been working for years to protect the forest are thrilled with the find.
Earlier this year, the City of Montreal took steps to officially recognize the area as a nature park by announcing plans to purchase two adjacent lots to use as an entrance.
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Now with this discovery, the group says is future proof that nature can regenerate if given a chance.
“I mean, if you leave something alone, this is what happens,” said Mintz, director of the group.
Now that the rebuilding of nearby Highway 20 is over, they want to see how the absence of construction noise and traffic is affecting biodiversity. A team of students from Concordia University is helping UrbaNature to catalogue life in the park, including vegetation.
“How native plant species are coming into this area which used to be not really colonized by any native plant species, including the fragrant sumac which was just discovered,” explained biology student Georgia Chandler.
UrbaNature volunteers say the avian variety has increased and Durord, the group’s president, wonders if birds might have brought sumac seeds into the area.
“Anyway, it’s a mystery,” he laughed.
They’re now curious to see what other surprises lie beneath the trees.
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