Rosemère has always shown leadership in environmental protection. It enjoys an enviable position, particularly with respect to the development of its green spaces and the protection of its natural environment. In recent months, despite the current health issues, the Town has spared no effort to pursue its mission of providing Rosemerites with an outstanding living environment.
On April 6, in order to pursue the revitalization of Miller Marsh, recognized since 2011 as a site of ecological interest to be protected, the Éco-Nature organization, with the financial support of the Town of Rosemère, acquired the last private property that provides access to the site. This land was then transferred to the Town of Rosemère for conservation purposes in perpetuity. This comes as excellent news for the community, as this small but so very precious haven of peace will be restored on an ongoing basis so that future generations will still be able to admire this natural space with its wealth of biodiversity.
In June, Rosemerites had the opportunity to participate in the very first Forum on the Environment, an initiative of the Civic Committee on the Environment. In a completely virtual way, nearly one hundred participants took part in interactive videoconferences on the concept of zero waste, natural environments and biodiversity.
And lastly, in July, in addition to now offering financial assistance of up to $40 to female residents of Rosemère who wish to purchase sustainable feminine hygiene products, Town Council adopted a resolution to ensure the sustainability and conservation of the Frères du Sacré-Coeur forest, woodlands located behind the Externat Sacré-Coeur belonging to Rosemère. This land has a hickory maple grove of unique forest value for which we will conduct an ecological analysis to assess its full worth. This land was the subject of volunteer planting of 600 trees in 2019 in order to revitalize its forest cover. Today, we are proud to note that the residents’ planting efforts have achieved a success rate of more than 90%.
Finally, on September 14, Rosemère adopted resolutions to concretely pursue its vision of preserving its green spaces with high ecological and environmental potential. The Town is applying for financial assistance from the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) under its Trame verte et bleue program to eventually acquire the private land known as the Grand-Côteau forest. This private land is currently zoned residential and is the subject of real estate development applications. Concretely, the Town wishes to obtain the legal and financial resources to preserve this woodland from any development. The objective of this action is to extend this metropolitan forest corridor recognized by the CMM, just as the City of Lorraine did recently.
“All these actions are directly in line with our strategic vision adopted in 2018: Rosemère, a proud, green and prosperous city. We can say that we are proud to develop an approach of dialogue and proximity with our residents in large-scale projects, as we have recently done with our urbanistic vision. We are also proud to continue to innovate in order to make our community ever greener through concrete initiatives. For Rosemère, the environment is an invaluable community asset. We have always focused our decisions on maintaining our living environment at the heart of our priorities, in order to preserve the outstanding living environment that we all share,” stated Eric Westram, Mayor of Rosemère.
