The Effects of Light Pollution on the Environment

by: Kahsennaró:roks Deom

What is Light Pollution?

Light pollution is defined as the artificial, man-made light that ‘contaminates’ the purity of the night sky.¹ At first, this may seem like a non-issue, but it doesn’t just prevent everyday civilians from looking at the stars at night. Light pollution also means that it impedes on the health of humans, mammals, insects, and even plants – directly or indirectly (Not to mention it probably affects astronomers and other scientists – but that is another topic). The question “what is light pollution?” isn’t simply answered by defining it. As a community, those who are interested in the topic must understand how light and its pollution is measured, who it is affecting, how it is affecting them, and how to control this issue. Hopefully this post will help those interested in light pollution learn more on how they can combat the issue.

How to Quantify Light Pollution?¹

To start, you must know that light pollution isn’t a problem all the time. It is only considered a problem when it is night time (when the sky is dark), and it depends on the amount of natural light that is available. So, an unpolluted area is an environment illuminated by natural light only, very little artificial light of a certain wavelength, or not illuminated at all. This area is usually outdoors (or indoors when light is not compromising health). A polluted area can be indoors and outdoors, and is highly illuminated by artificial light of a short wavelength.

The addition of artificial light is measured by concentration in volume, emissions, direction, spectrum, relativity, and physiology of vision. Some of these measurements will be discussed further in the text.

As mentioned above, short wavelengths (blue and green) are more severe for both viewing the night sky and the health of the planet. This is because short wavelengths indicate time of day for certain organisms while also affecting metabolism and other functions. They also affects our view of the night sky because they produce the most sky glow (diffusion of photons by moisture and air particles, resulting in a brighter sky).

Who is Affected?

Humans bear significant consequences of light pollution, but we aren’t the only ones. Along with use, mammals, birds, insects, plants, and many more are affected by artificial light at night

Humans are affected by light pollution because it impacts melatonin production, which impedes on our natural sleep cycle and has been linked to higher rates of breast cancer and prostate cancer. Our human biology has depended on the light/dark cycle adaptations, as all organisms’ biology is. In summary, our ancestors were active during the day, with the help of natural light, and restored their energy at night, with the help of the dark. Our bodies are adjusted to this cycle. One process that humans rely on that is aided by the day/night cycle, is pineal melatonin. This hormone is created in the pineal gland (the brain) and distributed to various parts of the body that use it. For instance, we use melatonin for sleep – it decreases vigilance and increases fatigue. It also repairs DNA, and manages or pituitary and ovarian hormones. These repairs happen when we sleep.

Artificial light was popularly introduced not too long ago (around 120 years). With this fast development, our biology hasn’t been able to adapt as quickly as it did to the natural light cycle. Due to the introduction of artificial light seeping through our windows at night, LED phone screens, etc., melatonin production is being suppressed. This causes our night/day cycles to lag (why one might be tired during the day even after a good night sleep), reduces fatigue, and reduces the amount of melatonin produced. this means that the areas in our bodies that need repair, aren’t being attended to at the same rate.

According to Haim et al. (2013), in a study, mice were treated with male prostate cells and were put under different light conditions. Some mice with shorter artificial light days were given another 30 minutes of light after being in the dark for 7 hours. Some mice with longer days of artificial light were treated with melatonin during the dark period. Those with the longer days had larger tumors than the short-day mice, and they also had lower melatonin levels. this shows that a longer exposure of artificial light increases the risk of cancer.

Other studies showed hat women with lower levels of melatonin were had larger tumors than women who were otherwise healthy, and were more at risk of cancer than others.

Nocturnal Predators, Migratory Birds, and food webs

At night, in terms of short term safety, artificial light is great for humans for visual aid; however; it shouldn’t be shocking that other animals would disagree!

Nocturnal mammals³:

• They have a high amount of rods in their eye biology, allowing for high visual stimulation by a low number of photons.
• Having few cones means they are easily blinded by bright lights.
• Dark nights are ideal for activities such as hunting.
• On bright nights, prey stay in the out of the moon light, for there are other predators that are not necessarily nocturnal
• With increased artificial light impeding on wildlife habitats, nocturnal predators are less likely to see their surroundings and are unable to catch as much prey, due to the prey’s preferred area of safety.
• Nocturnal animals don’t hunt in complete dark, so hunting with brighter light (depending on wavelength and intensity) can lead to higher accuracy, but less prey would be caught.

Migratory Birds³:

• It has been noticed especially by lighthouse keepers that birds tend to be attracted to light.
• Hunters used to use light to attract birds, and birdwatchers use light now to grab the attention of birds.
• Some songbirds travel at night to avoid the presence of predators.
• Birds are attracted to highway lights, city lights, radio towers and airplane towers.
• This attraction leads many birds to collide with buildings and structures, killing millions each year⁵.

Pea aphids and Great bird’s foot trefoil⁴

• The pea aphid’s food source is a flowering plant called the “Great bird’s foot trefoil”.
• In a study done at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom recorded the effects of artificial light on the food web between the aphid’s predator, the carabid beetles, aphids, and the trefoils
• With and without the presence of the aphid, the trefoil density decreased due to both white light (LED) and amber light (HPS)
• Aphid presence also decreased due to both lights.
• There was no recorded changes in the predator’s presence, but in another observation noted in this study, the carabid activity increased, which had consequences on its prey and in turn, on the prey’s food source.

Costa Rica: Turtle-Hatching ⁶

In Costa Rica, we had an opportunity to observe sea turtles hatching their eggs at night by the ocean. We learned there that when the turtle eggs hatch, the hatchlings wait until dark to make their way into the ocean. This is because they depend on the moon’s reflection on the water – they look for the brightest horizon to find the ocean. When there are other light sources near the beaches, such as city lights or lamp posts for beach visitors, they can mistake that source as the brightest horizon. With excess light, they are exposed to predators, and can lose themselves by losing track of the ocean.

Different Light Types^7,8

As mentioned above, there are many different light types – different wavelengths showing different colours. Some lights produce colors of short wavelengths, while other have longer wavelengths. Shorter wavelength-lights, such as LEDs, are shown to have worse effects on vision and biology compared to longer wavelength-light, like LPS (low pressure sodium).

Different light types range from LEDs, PCA LED (Phospho-converted amber LED), NBA LED (narrow band amber LED), HPS (High pressure sodium), and LPS.

What is Being Done?

Flagstaff, Arizona⁹:

• Started the Dark Skies Coalition – spread awareness of light pollution and promote dark nights.
• The city has installed lights that are covered on the top, as to not travel upwards and impede on view.
• Using mostly amber lights, with high wavelengths.

Natural Sounds and Night Skies division of the National Parks¹⁰:

• Also promoting dark night skies – not only for visitors at the National Parks, but also for those who live in national parks (AKA not humans)
• Reduce amount of light used in parks (mainly only on the paths for visitors).
• Lights are shielded and there is no blue light.
• Yellowstone National Park also educates its visitors on astronomy and the increasing problem with light pollution.

Sources:

¹ Hollan, Jan. “What is Light Pollution and How do we Quantify it?”. N. Copernicus Observatory and Planitarium. Dec 2006.

² Haim, Abraham, Boris A. Portnov. “Light Pollution as a New Risk Factor for Human Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancers”. Springer. 2013.

³ Rich, Catherine, Travis Longcore. Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting. Island Press.

⁴ Jonathan Bennie, Thomas W. Davies, David Cruse, Richard Inger, Kevin J. Gaston. Cascading effects of artificial light at night: resource-mediated control of herbivores in a grassland ecosystem. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, March 2015.

⁵ Ebersole, Rene. “Collateral Damage”. Audubon. Jul-Aug 2014.

⁶ “Sea Turtle Conservation”. International Dark Sky Association.

⁷ “LED Lighting and Dark Skies”. Flagstaff Dark Skies Coallition. 24 Apr. 2018.

⁸ “The Color of Lights: More than Meets the Eye”. Illinois Coalition for Responsible Outdoor Lighting. Jan. 2011.

⁹ “Home”. Flagstaff Dark Skies Coallition. 2 May. 2018.

¹⁰ “Night Sky Initiatives: Yellowstone National Park”. National Park Services.

¹¹ Howell, Elizabeth. “‘Sky Glow’ Kickstarter Takes on Light Pollution of the Night Sky”. Space. 8 May. 2015.

¹² “Winding Through Highway 1 and Redwood Forest at Night”. Youtube, JesdaG, 25 May. 2018.

¹³ Rich, Catherine, Travis Longcore. Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting. Pg. 79, Island Press.

¹⁴ “Lamp Spectrum and Light Pollution”. Flagstaff Dark Skies Coallition. 2 May. 2018.

Prevention Method of Spreading Ophryocystis elektro-scirrha Spores in Laboratory Reared Monarch (Danaus plexippus) Population

Maggie Blondeau, Nicholas Danopoulos, Alexandre Pham, Suthan Sinnathurai

Abstract

1) Because of the 78.35% mortality rate of monarch butterflies in the 2016 Monarch Project at Dawson College, a solution to reduce the cross contamination of the sporing parasite (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha; OE) causing the deaths was found. We believe washing hands with common soap will reduce the number of OE spores found on human skin.

2) OE is a protozoan parasite that as a spore on the wings and body of a grown butterfly, is introduced to milkweed plants when the monarch lands on it^[2]. OE either kills monarch pupas during metamorphosis, or the monarch emerges with other OE induced consequences (e.g. disfigurement).

3) 3 trials of washing hands after handling OE infected monarchs to reduce the amount of spores attached to the skin were performed.

4) The average amount of OE spores present on fingers before hand wash and after hand wash were 488.3 and 0.66 spores per millimetre squared respectively.

5) There is a significant difference between the amount of spores per millimetre squared before washing hands versus after. This shows how using common hand soap can reduce spores found on fingers by 99.9986%, helping to reduce the cross contamination of OE spores due to human contact.

Introduction

         The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a species in danger of extinction, with one study showing that there was an 84% decrease in the Eastern North American monarch population between 1996 & 2015. The decline in the population is thought to be due to the use of insecticides, loss of breeding habitat, plants, climate change, and decrease in the amount of milkweed (genus Asclepias)^[1]. Humans are the cause for several of these factors, and therefore have the responsibility to help revive the number of butterflies in its population. The 2016 Monarch Project at Dawson College had a 78.35% mortality rate of monarch butterflies, believed to be caused by a parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). Previous years also experience increased mortality rates, which may have also been caused by this parasite. With such a large mortality rate, the community needs a safer method of handling the monarchs and their environment, due to the easily spreadable nature of OE spores (Figure 1). If a method of diminishing spores is found, it will decrease the number of deaths due to this parasite for future years of this project.

Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE)

         OE is a protozoan parasite, that as a spore on the wings and body of the grown butterfly, is introduced to milkweed plants when the monarch lands on it. These spores may also cover monarch eggs if they come in contact with an infected butterfly. Spores are then consumed by the monarch caterpillars as they feed on the milkweed. Once ingested, they release sporozoite (the cells which infect the pupa during metamorphosis) as the larva produces digestive chemicals to break down the milkweed. While the caterpillar is in metamorphosis, these cells go through the stages of vegetative schizogony (asexual reproduction) and line the intestinal tract of the pupa. The parasite continues to reproduce until several days before the butterfly emerges from its cocoon, where it then begins to produce spores^[2]. Once infected with this parasite, there are three possible outcomes: The pupa dies in its chrysalis, it emerges as a disabled/disfigured butterfly, or the butterfly emerges without any physical irregularities, though it carries the spores to the next milkweed plant it lands on, allowing the cycle to restart^[3].

How to Prevent Humans from Spreading Spores

         Monarchs may not be the only species which contribute to the spread of OE spores. It is possible for the spores to be carried from one plant to another, or one butterfly to another, due to human cross contamination. Spores attach to human skin, as studies and personal observation suggests^[4], therefore if a person works with a milkweed plant, or a butterfly/caterpillar contaminated with OE, there is a potential for the spores to be spread to any other plant or butterfly/caterpillar that the person may work with. This project aims to find a way to prevent, or diminish this cross contamination, as it contributes to the mortality rate of monarch pupae and to the population of disfigured monarch butterflies.     

         There have been experiments performed to test hand washing to reduce the amount of spores found on a person’s skin, however OE was not the spore in question. One experiment was performed on Clostridium difficile, a sporing organism that can be spread through human cross contamination^[5]. One study found that a non-antimicrobial hand wash reduced the amount of spores found on a carriers hands by 78%^[6]. This experiment is pertinent, as it proves how a basic store bought hand soap can eliminate the majority of spores found on human hands. Therefore, it may reflect how the experiment of this project will perform, and thus will reduce the cross contamination of OE spores by humans.

         The project aims to determine whether the use of store bought hand wash (a common type found in homes and laboratories) will reduce the number of spores on the person’s skin, which in turn would limit the spreading of these spores. This research has never been done before to our knowledge, and therefore the results will help inform everyone working with monarchs and/or milkweed plants. Taking steps towards reducing human cross contamination of OE will help the struggling monarch population. Therefore, this project will help and improve the survival rate of butterflies of the Monarch Project at Dawson College.

Methods

         Before the experiment, the participants’ hands were washed (Softsoap^TM) and dried completely. The participants then rubbed the OE infected monarch’s abdomen with their index finger and thumb. Afterwards, one piece of scotch tape was accurately applied to the part of the index finger that came in contact with the monarch. It was then pulled off and stuck to a hemocytometer slide identified that it is the slide used before the final hand washing. Their hands were then washed and dried again. A different piece of scotch tape was applied to the thumb that came in contact with the monarch. The piece of scotch tape was stuck to the hemocytometer slide and identified as the slide used after the final hand washing. There were three participants, and therefore three trials. Error bar analysis^[7] was then used to determine whether the two groups are significantly different.

Results

         The average amount of spores present on fingers before final hand wash and after final hand wash were 488.3 and 0.66 spores per millimetre squared respectively after 3 trials (Figure 2). The error bar analysis^[7] used concluded that the two groups are significantly different, with a gap of 258.01 spores present.

Discussion

         The average amount of OE spores present on fingers before final hand wash and after final hand wash were 488.3 and 0.66 spores per millimetre squared respectively (Figure 2). The two groups had varied standard deviations, with the before group’s being 397.2, meaning that the average from all 3 trials were largely varied. This could have been caused by the limited material (i.e. only one OE contaminated monarch was used in all trials). Therefore the majority of the spores may have been removed during the first trial, with the following trials having fewer spores to attach to the skin. In a more preferable case, there would be a different contaminated monarch for each trial. However, the standard deviation of the after group was low, being only 0.57, suggesting that the hand wash (Softsoap^TM) did remove almost every spore present on the finger. The standard errors were also varied, with that of the before group being high, at 229.3. The after group had a standard error of only 0.33. The standard error bar analysis^[7] used concluded that the two groups are significantly different, with a gap of 258.01.

         The result effectiveness of the hand wash is similar to that of the experiment performed on Clostridium difficile, a sporing organism that can be spread through human cross contamination. The effectiveness of a hand wash on removing C. diff spores was 78%^[5], and the percent effectiveness of the hand wash used for this experiment at removing OE spores was 99.9986%. This suggests that certain sporing organisms are removable via hand wash, which is pertinent to all those who work in environments potentially containing sporing parasites.

         This study has never previously been performed, and thus this research is an important and impactful addition to the community of individuals who work with monarchs and/or milkweed by preventing the cross contamination of OE spores. The question remains of which components in the hand soap allow for the decrease of spores attached to the oils human skin secretes, as well as if any hand soap will do this, or if specific brands are required.

References

1. Schmitz, B. A. (2016). Pollinator Populations may become Extinct. Wild Ones Journal, 29(3), 16.

2. Sander, S. E., Altizer, S., De Roode, J. C., & Davis, A. K. (2013, August 28). Genetic Factors and Host Traits Predict Spore Morphology for a Butterfly Pathogen. doi:10.3390/insects4030447

3. Altizer, S. M., & Oberhause, K. S. (1998, August 10). Effects of the Protozoan Parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha on the Fitness of Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus). Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, 76-77.

4. Smith, E. (2013, December 22). OE – Ophryocystis elektroscirrha – Monarch Butterfly. Butterfly Fun Facts.

5. Gouliouris, T., Brown, N. M., & Aliyu, S. H. (2011). Prevention and treatment of Clostridium difficile infection. Clinical Medicine, 11(1), 75-79.

6. Shrestha, N. (2009, April). C. difficile spore removal via hand washing a challenge. Infectious Disease News. p. 23.

7. Cumming, G., Fiddler, F., & Vaux, D. L. (2007, April 9). Error bars in experimental biology. The Journal of Cell Biology. doi:10.1083

Case Study on Mount-Royal park

How to protect our urban ecoterritory

By Loubna Hiba Labdeli, Kuang Jin

Human often forget they are a part of nature. In fact, many have this mentality, that human is at the opposite side of nature. In our history books, nature is often portrayed as a monstrous being, a treat for early human. Then, human by using its strength and intelligence has overcome challenges, conquers and finally dominates the natural environment. From the fire of Prometheus to the Great Flood of Gun-Yu, this pattern of origin myth has deeply rooted in our culture and result in human both fear and lack of respect toward the nature. Until today, word like “wild” or “wilderness” still have some sort of negative connotation due to that reason.

As a modern human born and raised in the cities, it’s truly hard to develop a sense of solidarity and affinity with nature due to our lack of exposure to any type of natural environment. This lack of connection with the wilderness has activate our fear for the unknown and distance ourselves even more from the nature. This might seem like a minor issue, but when comes to environmental conservation which needs the support and the collaboration of the whole society, this will have a major impact on public’s opinion. More specifically, this distance will become an element of hindrance. People generally valued the direct and the indirect value of biodiversity. But many fail to comprehend when comes to the existential value of biodiversity. This absence of empathy toward other organism find its origin in the unfamiliarity toward nature and the fear that comes with it. To balance out this fear, many modern humans have this almost delusional perspective of human capability, they think human technology could do anything, they don’t need to respect the balance in nature and could still get what they need. This ignorance born out of blind arrogance makes human act slowly in front of serious environmental crises like climate change.

This is not only an environmental problem, but also a cultural problem. Culture is essentially the sum of how people think and what people do, it is dynamic and undergo constant changes, but to drive the change in culture is difficult. In fact, the only way to shape culture is through education. To break this fear and unconsciousness toward the nature, we must build up affinity and connection between nature and human. By that, I mean to integrate and merge nature into human life.

A very straightforward way is to built parks into cities. There are many types of parks, some are nothing more than an open grassland that have very poor diversity, they are not subject of this discussion. What we are interested at is a biodiverse area with in cities that could be treated as a natural reserve. We could call these parks with the term ‘ecoterritory’. But these ecoterritory need to be managed wisely, the dynamic yet delicate balance between biodiversity and human activity need ecological knowledge and care to maintain.

Mount-Royal Park located in the center on Montreal island is one of the most iconic and successful ecoterritory in Quebec. It is not a coincidence that after almost 400 years of human disturbance, this landmark of Montreal surprisingly still maintains some degrees of biodiversity. This result is due to historical and ongoing conservation effort that been put in to this tiny mountain. Even though Mount- Royal Park still face some challenges and difficulty, but with the Montreal city development master plan, we can expect a bright future for the park. The conservation of Mount-Royal is not only beneficial for Montreal but could be a good example for the management of other urban ecoterritory. This park is a valuable place that contains an important number of native red Oaks in strands which provide a valuable breeding habitat for bird life and may constitute the home of rare plant species It is also a high visited park with 13% of its users being tourists, one could not ignore the economic aspect

of this touristic attraction. The promotion of the park’s enhancement
and protection also is in the interest of the public health as it is a place that
allows them to go hiking or go out. The Mount-Royal park represents also an important air purifier as it contains a high forest density clearing the
polluted air of the Metropol. And its high biomass helps shade the city from the sun, allows evapotranspiration and also helps reduce the temperature of the air as shown in the figure 1. Therefore it have the ability to regulate local climate. These properties has made Mount-Royal a refuge during the age of the first industrialisation, in 1861 Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal has moved from the old port to settle in the mountain to get away from the heavy pollution, then followed by Royal Victoria Hospital at 1893 and Shriners Hospital for Children at 1925. Furthermore, it has significant value on the population’s education as we said, especially the younger ones as it could be used to promote the importance of sustainable management and the encouragement in the usage of natural parks and the mountains’ valuable heritage.

This important landscape, however, hasn’t always been protected as it should. In the past centuries, almost 100% of the landmass was altered by human. In the full swing of industrial development, Montrealers has first realized the importance of preserving this important natural and cultural heritage at the second half of the 19th century, this lead to the inauguration of Mount Royal Park at 1876. This initiated the preservation of Mount-Royal’s natural environment, but it has offered only minor protection for the ecosystem due to the lack of ecological knowledge and effective regulation in management. Therefore at the middle of 20th century, Mount-Royal’s ecosystem face serious problems. The endless construction on the mountain has result habitat loss, there was a significant decline in the size of forest, the diversity of the ecosystem and overall biomass (Figure 2). The launch of the Mount-Royal park has introduced and increased human disturbances, resulting lost in the forest undergrowth that we could still observe today. Lack of ecological knowledge lead to the introduction of many invasive species like Norway maple (Acer platanoides) which was brought in for street greening, selected for its small root radius, but soon outcompete local species and treat the indigenous sugar maple population (Acer saccharum). Until recent years, the increase of international transportation has introduced many fungal diseases into the area, such as the fungal pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus from Europe which has caused massive ash dieback in Mount- Royal .

To solve those issues in order to preserve the forest of Mount-Royal and keeping Montreal an ecologically functional city, conservation plan need to be designed wisely. With the Montreal city development master plan put out at 2004, city suggest that ecoterritory should be considered and managed as natural reserves within the city. 10 ecoterritories was identified specifically as independent but interconnected conservation subject according to Politique du Patrimoine Art.3.59 of Montreal. These ecoterritoires as a unified network will not only help strengthen the resistance of each ecoterritory, but also facilitate species migration. for example, the Île Bizard ecoforest corridor allow species to enter the ecoterritory network from the north, then by passing through the ecoterritory of Cheval Blanc rapids and Bertrand stream basin species could bird could enter the Mount- Royal area. After that, between the ecoterritory of mount-Royal and the reserve of Lachine des Rapides, There is the Saint-Jacques escarpment which act as a stepping stone, this opened up a north-south pathway for bird migration and potentially this pathway could benefit species in climate change caused range shift to move toward the north. (figure 3,) Usually urban areas will block migration and fragment habitat, but with these ecoterritories, a city could reduce its impact on the environment. Within Mount-Royal Park there is a similar network, directed by the Mount-Royal Protection and Enhancement Plan this natural reserve is divided in 3 main conservation area called core zone, which are connected with ecological corridors. A layer of buffer zone of 30m cover the edge of the core zone (Figure 4). In those core zones, constructions are forbidden by law, in the corridors construction is at least regulated to prevent further habitat loss. The conservation team (ami de la montagne) also attempt to reconstruct the three stratas structure of the forest in order to increase the habitat heterogeneity and maximize the biodiversity. To reconstruct the lost of undergrowth in some areas due to human disturbance, the park has recently set up re-naturalisation area in the south side of the mountain to avoid human entree. The plan has also put highlight on the integrity of indigenous species, the park remove regularly invasive species, in the last year, Mount-Royal park has cut down almost 200 individuals of Norway maple and replaced them with native sugar maple.

Even with all these conservation effort that went into the park, there are still some challenges remain, the integrated tourism has inevitably caused the presence of road crossing the core areas and that lead to fragmentation and road side effect (specifically the increase in invasive herbaceous overgrowth, decrease in indigenous undergrowth ) There might be the need in the future to construct micro-ecological corridor to increase habitat availability and to define more buffer zone at the road edge. The re-naturalisation area is also having hard time to recover its undergrowth due to the higher strata blocking the sunlight. This is because the Mount-Royal have a very special land relief pattern, the slope of the mountain is almost in a stairs like pattern, which means there are both very sharp rise and flat surface in the landscape. In forest, trees grow in colonies, tree of similar taxas and age will have similar height, many trees of same height stand on a flat surface will inevitably block the sunlight from reaching the lower stratas. This type of relief might not be beneficial for plant undergrowth, but it is coincidentally appropriate for the construction of artificial wetlands, which is also something the park is planning to built in order to increase habitat heterogeneity. There, the Lac de castor in the middle of the mountain that could act as a water source.

Mount-Royal is a common property of all Montreal citizens. therefore many Montrealers also play an active role in the conservation of the mountain. In the attempt to revive the ash population after the dieback, the park has organized citizen to involve in the replantation process. We think Mount-Royal, although face its own problems, is a good example for all urban ecoterritory, the reason of its success is due to the trinity of citizen participation, governmental management and ecological perspective. With more and more ecoterritories in cities like Montreal, citizen will have more chance to connect with the nature because it is integrated in their urban life. Then, our society might have the hope of one day develop a common empathy toward our mother nature, before it’s too late.

Work cited :

• Policy on the Protection and Enhancement of Natural Habitats. Direction Des Communications Et Des Relations Avec Les Citoyens, 2004.
• Mount Royal Protection and Enhancement Plan. Ville de Montréal, 2006.