The City of Laval announced on January 28, 2021 its wish to expand the Rivière-des-Mille-Îles wildlife refuge, which should see its surface area multiplied by 20. The refuge will thus have nearly double the surface area of Central Park in New York, as we can read in the press release from the city, relayed by The duty. We are talking about 568 hectares, the equivalent of nearly 800 football fields.
Towards a better future for Île Gagnon
This is an important gesture in the protection of this magnificent ecosystem. It is also an extraordinary step forward in the last two years, when citizens did not dream of such an improvement for the wildlife refuge, since they were still fighting for prevent the destruction of Gagnon Island.
There were several of us from Fondation Rivières who participated in August 2020 in the expression on water organized by Thousand Islands Vigil. Bravo for all this work: it is largely thanks to you, committed citizens, that we owe this great victory.
Gagnon Island will not become a wildlife refuge, however, since it is already inhabited. On the other hand, it is a strong signal of a change of perspective in terms of development in Laval. We are moving from a “concrete” approach to one that takes into account the preservation of nature. And very ill-advised will be the contractor who wants to concrete Gagnon Island in the future...
Photo credit: Philippe Oursel
