A young activist climbs a 300 year old tree that would be lost with the highway construction.
The Wakefield Lowdown reports, “The Highway 5 extension project in Wakefield has been officially approved (by Quebec’s ministry of the environment)…”
But there are already concerns about promises made by the province’s ministry of transportation on water protection. “With the Highway coming so close to (a) ‘super well’ (on Valle Verde Road), the MTQ is decommissioning it, as it may become contaminated when highway construction crews resume blasting operations. The MTQ agreed to drill four replacement wells for each home, and they did so last summer.” Now, the well drillers say there’s not enough water in those new wells, while the province says the water quality and quantity is fine. “With the MTQ seemingly not living up to its promises made in the environmental assessment, it makes Save Our Spring Chairman Peter Andree concerned that the promises the ministry made to SOS about monitoring the Valley Drive spring, a popular source of drinking water for thousands of users year round, may also fall by the wayside.”
The article highlights, “The news of the planned Hwy 5 extension to Wakefield getting the green light from the province’s ministry of environment isn’t a red light for protesters who have been calling for a redesign and a halt to the La Peche segment of the project. …According to Jean Paul Murray, chair of the Gatineau Park Protection Committee, there are about 30 people prepared to climb a 300-year-old white pine tree to protest workers cutting it down. Other protesters are making signs and raising awareness about the damage such a project will cause vis-a-vis the picturesque Hills landscape at Wakefield. …The situation could intensify when tree-cutters begin to clear the way through the forest, only to find tree-sitters who won’t climb down to make way for the advancing chainsaws.”
“The A5X group…will hold open house events at their Occupy camp just off Brown Lake Road and it is training more citizens in civil disobedience, including tree-climbing. For more information or to get involved, visit the website at www.a5x.org.”
If you live in the area, the group is organizing a ‘Human Chain’ peaceful demonstration on Saturday February 18 at 10 am. People are to gather at Parking Lot P17 in Gatineau Park, just past Browns Lake. The event poster can be found here.
Additionally, to respond to an action alert demanding a stop the clearcutting of the forest and the endangering of the area’s water, please see http://canadians.org/blog/?p=13501.
The Council of Canadians has been following this issue since May 2010, http://canadians.org/blog/?s=%22highway+5%22. On February 20, 2011, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke against the environmental destruction that would be caused by the highway at a public event in Wakefield.
