Microforests Project

As part of the second edition of the City of Montreal's participatory budget, the Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles borough created four small microforest areas in the Pasquale-Gattuso Park sector in 2024. This project, stemming from citizen proposals, contributes to the greening of your neighborhood.

What is a microforest?

A microforest involves the compact and very dense planting of several small-sized native trees and shrubs, in a way that recreates a natural forest more resilient to climatic challenges (wind, cold, frost, heat waves, etc.). This planting technique, increasingly used in Montreal's parks, allows trees to grow about 10 times faster while promoting biodiversity.

A Cool Island

The planting zones are located in the southern part of the park, in its large linear section. In addition to substantially increasing the forest cover, thus contributing to the fight against climate change, these new micro-forests will bring numerous benefits:

• Creation of a cool island;
• Greater biodiversity (birds, pollinators, etc.);
• Natural visual screen between the residential and industrial zones.

A total of about 1,600 native trees and shrubs have been planted. The chosen native species are very diverse (red oak, silver maple, shrubs, black cherry, serviceberry, black chokeberry, white pine, gooseberry, birch, dogwood, etc.).